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Beyond the Great South Wall 








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THERE WAS A HUM AND A FLICK AS THE ROPE PARTED. 

Page 220. 



Beyond The 
Great South Wall: 

Ciie Secret of tfie 9lntarctic 

By FRANK S A V I L E 

, 1 • 

Author of “The Blessing of Esau,^’ “John Ship, Mariner,^* Etc. 

WITH SUNDRY GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS 
PAINTED BY ONE ROBERT L. MASON 




NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY 
75(5 Fifth Avenue : New York City : MCMI 


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Th E LIBRARY OF 

Two OoP'wJ Reccweo 

NOV. 13 1901 

COPVRWHT entry 

CLASS CL XXc NO 

'I / o L>o 

COPY 3. 


Copyright, 1901, 

BY 

NEW AMSTERDAM BOOK COMPANY 


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CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I. A Great Depression, 1 

II. The Tale of a Coincidence, ... 18 

III. The Testimony of Sir John Dorinecourte, 

Knt., 

IV. What Baines Knew, 44 

V. Professor Lessaution’s Opinion, ... 59 

VI. We Sail South, 78 

VII. A Light in the Darkness, .... 93 

VIII. Before the Gale, 109 

IX. The Leaping of the Wall, .... 128 

X. Behind the Barrier, 150 

XI. A Glacier Cave and What Lay Therein, 166 

XII. The Great God Cay, 184 

XIII. A Closed Door, 198 

XIV. In THE' Ninth Circle, 215 

XV. The Mountain Wakes, .... 236 

XVI. The Temple and the Lair of Cay, . . 252 

XVII. A Little Dog’s Stumble, .... 267 

XVIII. A Desperate Betrothal 284 

XIX. A Wondrous Breaching of the Wall, . 304 





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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Out ... of that Yeasty Whirupooe Came 

My Love, . 103 

It was the Face of One Alone with Death, 177 
There was a Hum and a Flick as the Rope 

Parted, ....... 220 

It was the Last Worship of the Priests of Cay, 253 
“It’ll Soon be Over,” I Said,. . . . 296 

A Red Storm of Lava Dashed in a Cloud of 

Steam to the Far End* of the Lake . 305 






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BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


CHAPTER I 

A GREAT DEPRESSION 

The purr and throb of London was quivering 
in stuffily through the open windows. The 
squeals of the “special” newsboys and the han- 
som-whistles of the early diners-out splashed 
across the blur and din, standing out against 
the immeasurable roar as against a silence. 
The heat of a London summer lay heavily over 
us ; the undying rattle of wheels beat up to us 
wearily, the mid-season blare and hurry of 
town echoing irritatingly in their jingle and 
clatter as they streamed ceaselessly by. The 
stew and hubbub of the afternoon enclosed us 
as with a pall of depression. 

By us I mean Gerry and myself. Flung back 
listlessly was I in my club chair, and watching 
him as he strolled monotonously up and down 
before the great bow-window that gave upon 
Pall Mall. His hands were scabbarded hilt high 
in his pockets. His brows and the corners of 
his eyes were hard and wrinkled. His gaze was 
cast steadfastly before his toes. He did a very 
sentry-go of moody vexation. 


2 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

Each time he paused, as he turned against the 
light, every wrinkle and line was silhouetted 
mercilessly. Wretchedness covered his face as 
with a mask. My heart began to go out to 
him, bursting through its own crust of dejec- 
tion. Wretched we both were, but I was seven 
years *his senior. I began to commune with my- 
self, seeking comfort for him out of my own 
hard-won store of disappointment, and trying 
to forget that our sorrows sat upon an even 
base. 

Suddenly he turned towards me and broke the 
silence that had lasted between us the greater 
part of the afternoon. 

“Well,” he said harshly, “that’s the end of 
most things for me.” 

“Possibly,” answered I, “but probably not. 
The future’s very spacious yet, my dear boy. I 
don’t say it in any patronizing spirit, but 
you’re only twenty-four. Try to forget the 
‘might-have-been,’ and buck yourself up into 
imagining the ‘may-be.’ It’s not all over yet.” 

He grunted contemptuously, tramping off 
again upon his beat. A waiter who chanced in 
with the evening papers coughed ostenta- 
tiously, and with obvious intention towards 
the cloud of dust that followed hard upon his 
track. Gerry stared him down, and as the door 
closed behind him, brought himself to anchor 
before me again. 

“That’s all rot, and you know it. Jack,” he 
said dogmatically. “Do you think I’m going 
to stay here and see Vi come back another 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


3 


man’s wife? I’m sick of it all— sick of the work, 
sick of the play. Deathly sick of the utter 
sameness of what we call life. I’m going to 
chuck it, I tell you. Hausa Police, Egyptian 
Army, Hong Kong Regiment— something of the 
kind I’m going to try. There’s nothing most 
assuredly to keep me any longer in* her 
Majesty’s Foot Guards. I’m dipped, and I’ve 
lost the one thing that might have kept me to 
the collar. Great Heavens! what in the name 
of goodness should I stay for?” 

I stared back at him answerless. I knew he 
was talking a cheap sentiment which a month 
or two later he would be the first to despise. 
I too was feeling in a modified form all he felt. 
To me had also come the animal desire for 
action that follows hard upon mental stress. 
But that seven years made the difference. 
Though that day had brought me the supreme 
discontent of my life, I was still aware that the 
world continued to wag, and that we should 
swing along^with it. Yet how could I comfort 
without offending? 

Now the reason of all this affliction was sim- 
ple enough and old as time. To each of us had 
come the desire of his life, and to each had it 
been denied. That morning we had spent at 
the Albert Docks, and had seen a tall ship sail 
out for foreign lands, bearing upon her decks 
two maidens who were taking with them our 
hearts to the world’s end. 

I never was much of a chap for lover’s rhap- 
sodies, so I will make no effort to explain to 


4 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


you how sweet a girl was Gwen Delahay, nor 
why she held my heart in the hollow of her 
hand. She was one of the many good and 
beautiful women — God bless them — who walk 
this earth, and are to their lovers peerless. And 
as I worshipped her, so did Gerry worship Vi, 
her sister — a thing perhaps inexplicable, in that 
he had seen Gwen, but one to be truly thankful 
for, seeing that we were friends beyond the 
ordinary sympathies of life. And now were we 
left hopeless. 

Plain Captain Dorinecourte was I, with a 
slender six hundred pounds beyond my pay, 
and Gerry, poor lad, had less. You will not 
exhaust yourself with wonder then, when I re- 
late the fact that Lady Delahay declined on be- 
half of her daughters our attentions, contemned 
our eligibility, and hated poisonously the sight 
of our ingenuous faces. For all these things, I 
take it, a Society mother is bound by her alle- 
giance to Society to do. Yet though we felt 
that she played the game as we understood it, 
none the less did we cry out upon our luck in 
being the losers. And now it seemed that we 
might well throw down our cards. 

The fond mother’s fears of the blight which 
our undivided attentions might throw upon her 
daughters’ careers had culminated that morn- 
ing. A month before an announcement in the 
Morning Post had spurred her to an action 
which her fear alone would never have con- 
ceived. It ran as follows — 

“Among the passengers by the s.s. Madagas- 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


5 


car, which sails on August 4 for her winter’s 
cruise around the world, will be the Earl of 
Denvarre. His lordship will be accompanied by 
his brother the Hon. Stephen Garlicke.” 

This item of intelligence had caught the duti- 
ful mother’s eye, and taken vigorous root in her 
somewhat languid intelligence. Two eligible 
young men were to be shut up for eight or nine 
months in a space not more than one hundred 
yards long by twenty wide. Walking lawlessly 
in London were two extremely ineligible 
youths, unchained, ready and willing to wreck 
her daughters’ happiness. Why not extract the 
victims from this hazardous propinquity, plac- 
ing them at the same time in the financially 
commendable vicinitude of a live earl and his 
brother. Action was born only too rapidly 
from reflection. We had seen them off that very 
morning. 

So there sat we in the desolation of a mere 
club, disconsolate amid the roar of the city, 
while the sunset became the twilight, the shad- 
ows of the lamp-posts lengthened, and darkness 
fell upon the town even as upon our hearts. 
And out of the plenitude of my regret I failed to 
find the word of sympathetic comfort for Gerry. 

Lost in our heavy-hearted musings, it was 
past eight when we realized that food was yet 
a distasteful necessity of existence, and sought 
the club dinner. Silently we entered the dining- 
room, Gerry with the air of one who ap- 
proached poisoned dishes, and chose a table 
apart. Though the soup and sherry warmed 


6 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


my companion to conversation, it had a bias of 
marked contempt. 

Clubs, he showed beyond dispute, were traps 
for the unwary, committees were things of 
naught, secretaries insolent and overpaid. 
Waiters were plucked from the gutter to be 
trained in pot-houses, and cooks cherished the 
idea that to evolve a savoury it was but neces- 
sary to taint an olive with a deeayed anchovy. 
Women who were guests of brother members — 
it was Wednesday night — were all dressed in 
seventeen tints of garish atrocity, and were of 
a mediocrity of feature which he plainly con- 
demned. He mentioned the names of no less 
than six social resorts oif which he purposed to 
take his name in the morning. This, of course, 
preparatory to stirring activities which would 
remove him beyond their sphere of usefulness. 
Still soured, but evidently relieved, he then re- 
tired behind the sheets of the Westminster^ with 
which he screened himself from further inter- 
course with his fellows. Apathetically I pro- 
ceeded with my repast. 

Suddenly the decorum of the room received a 
shock. A sound burst from Gerry’s throat 
which I can only term a crow. He endeavored 
frantically and indecently to masticate the por- 
tion which he had placed between his teeth, 
beating the paper at me furiously. The sounds 
which continued to issue from his lips were 
such as no one could approve. He mouthed 
unutterable things. 

Hastily I rose and thumped him on the back. 


A GREAT depression 


1 


and noticed that his finger continned to tap' 
viciously upon a headline which he thrust into 
my face. As the distressing symptoms modified 
themselves he gradually found his breath, but 
ceased not to bulge his eyes upon me. 

“Look, old man, look,” he insisted faintly, 
and I took the paper from his hand. 

“We regret to announce the death of Viscount 
Heatherslie at Greytown, Central America. 
His lordship had lately been travelling in the 
vicinity, and his death is ascribed to malarial 
fever. As yet no details can be ascertained.” 
— Reuter. 

The words turned red before my eyes as they 
danced up and down the green columns. Uncle 
Leonard was dead — was dead. And I— well, I 
had to think it very hard indeed before I dared 
repeat it silently even to myself— I was Lord 
Heatherslie. Only one thought had possession 
of my mind. Not a regret did I spare for the 
dead, not a single reflection as to what this 
thing meant to me or my prospects did I give 
beyond the fact that my luck — my cursed Irish 
luck — had been too late. That one idea had 
hold of me. A week earlier — a few hours earlier, 
and what might have been? — what might have 
been? A curse snarled from between my teeth 
as I sat down again to stare white-faced across 
at Gerry. 

The excitement had died from his face. His 
sympathy was quicker than mine had been. He 
stretched his hand across the table and gripped 
mine hard. 


8 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“Frightful luck, old chap,” he murmured; “I 
know what you’re thinking. But — but it 
needn’t be too late yet, Jack.’’ 

I shook my head. Things had become blurred 
in my brain, but one fact stood out bright as a 
search-light to my mind’s eye. Gwen was go- 
ing out of my life, going away from me as fast 
as breeze and steam would take her. And the 
thing that might have stayed our separation — 
have given her to me — was a week — nay, only 
a day — too late. I could have smitten my head 
against the wall in my agony of disappoint- 
ment. 

And yet I had resigned Gwen as fatalistically 
as any son of Islam. I had schooled myself to 
think of her as already belonging to another. I 
had bidden her good-bye without a quiver. 
Even the look she had given me at the last — a 
tender, questioning look it was too, and 
straight from her heart through her dear eyes 
— I had met with a smile that told of nothing. 
To me the hopelessness of it all had come home 
long days before, and I simply wouldn’t sadden 
the poor child and prolong the pain of parting. 
I meant that parting to be the absolute separa- 
tion of our lives — one that should leave no 
dropped threads to be gathered up in future 
days of further hopelessness. 

And now — now I had the right to win her, 
and honourably. Only a soldier I might be, but 
I had a place of my own to take a wife to. 
Nor would she come to me to sink into a no- 
body. Half a county would welcome Lady 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


9 


Heatherslie, though half that county might be 
in rags. Poor we should always have been, 
but not desperately. Modestly we should have 
had to live, but we could have kept our rank 
befittingly. And now the chance was gone. 
Away beyond the seas she would set herself to 
forget me, and Denvarre would show her how. 
The black curses fell over each other in their 
haste to reach my tongue, and the salt tears 
nigh fled out along with them. I made an 
effort and pulled myself together. 

“Come along,” said I hoarsely to Gerry in a 
voice that I hardly knew myself, and blundered 
out of the room. Without another word I crept 
into the hansom the commissionaire called, and 
together we drove down the glaring streets to 
my rooms, Gerry offering no sympathy but a 
silence which I understood and was grateful 
for. 

You know the heavy, choking pain that lies 
leaden in your throat when one you love has 
gone out into the emptiness— the desperate un- 
belief in your torture — the mad hope that in- 
sists that this thing is too horrible to bear. 
My suffering came home to me like that. I 
could only think of Gwen as of one dead and 
gone from me, but with the added agony of 
knowing that to me she might have been life 
and love itself. I felt that I could beat the air, 
wrestling with my fate for my desire. I gasped, 
unmanned with wretchedness. 

Then Gerry rose and put his hand upon my 
shoulder. Here again his selfishness was seven 


10 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

years younger than mine. He could lose his 
sorrow in sympathy. 

“God be good to you, dear old chap,” he 
said; “it’s desperate, desperate luck, but after 
all is it too late? You’ve the place, the title, 
and all that— and after all, you know, the old 
boy might have come home and married any 
day — why can’t you follow them? Surely you 
might drop in with them somewhere.” 

“Too late? Of course it’s too late,” said I 
bitterly. “Is a girl to wait forever? Besides, 
they can’t hear of it for weeks — very likely not 
at all. By then Denvarre will have settled mat- 
ters, if he isn’t the most consummate idiot on 
earth.” 

“That may be all very well about Denvarre,” 
quoth Gerry wisely, “though I don’t see that it 
is for certain, all the same. But what about 
Gwen? You don’t allow her much independence 
of thought. Why should he happen to meet her 
fancy? Do you think she doesn’t know you 
worship the ground she walks on?” 

I stared at him, gnawing uneasily at my 
moustache, and with the sense that he spoke 
^ the truth. Gwen knew it — must know it, but 
she must have seen, as did I, the hopelessness of 
the business— must have known that the fare- 
well of that morning was to be the end. And 
yet — and yet that look she gave me. Was it 
merely questioning, or did it tell me some- 
thing? I fell into that moody, unhealthy mind 
when one forbids oneself to hope for very hope 
of being mistaken— assuring myself that I knew 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


11 


there could be nothing but despair for me in the 
future, trusting all the same that wanton fate 
would prove me wrong. Which is a phase of 
unreason, I take it, more wearing than an utter 
yielding to desperation. 

“Now, old chap,” went on Gerry soberly, “if 
you begin to muse and wonder you’ll never 
sleep to-night. I believe this thing comes in the 
light of luck for both of us. I feel twice the 
man I did half-an-hour ago, and I’m going to 
whine no more. However matters go you’re 
very much better off than you were this morn- 
ing, and, as I said before, what’s to prove that 
either Gwen or Vi may not come back to us 
again? Heaps of things may happen in a year. 
Why,” he went on smiling, “with the influence 
of the Heatherslies at my back I mean to get 
an attacheship and marry Vi myself. At any 
rate I believe now that the game’s not over. 
I’ll be your best man yet, unless we’re both 
married together, and I won’t say that’s not 
possible.” 

It was good to hear him say it, but all the 
time I was telling myself frantically that it 
was rot— that I mustn’t listen to him, and I 
backed my inward despondency with the 
spoken word. 

“But even now,” I demurred, “what am I 
but a pauper peer? Fifty thousand acres of 
bog are mine, and a few English farms. What’s 
that to Denvarre’s forty thousand pounds a 
year and Gleivdon? I’d take an offer of five 
thousand pounds a year for all I possess.” 


12 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

He rose and slapped me on the back cheerily, 
smiling as he reached for his hat. 

“There, there,” said he, “that’s quite enough. 
Jack. I’m off, and you’re going to tumble in. 
You’ll be twice the man in the morning. You’re 
upset with it all, and to-morrow when you’re 
a bit steadied you’ll see it all in another light. 
We’ll have a long collogue about it then, and 
you’ll know what you’re going to do. Night- 
night, old man, and don’t dream if you can 
help it,” and he passed across to his rooms 
whistling, though I could but notice it was a 
very reedy, quivering attempt. 

In spite of Gerry’s veto I did dream that 
night, seeing Denvarre in many a heroic atti- 
tude save Gwen from desperate perils by flood 
and field — masterful deeds which I could only 
watch in restless helplessness. I rode a night- 
mare which trampled my every aspiration in 
the mud of desolation, leaving me to awake 
heavy-eyed and low-spirited, but yet, as Gerry 
predicted, with some of the hope that each new 
day brings. And after my bath— and what a 
mental as well as bodily tonic a cold bath is — I 
was chastened, maybe, but myself again. I 
filled my clothes without feeling three sizes too 
small for them, and ate my breakfast with ap- 
petite. As I was at it. Barker brought in a 
telegram. I ripped the dirty orange-colored 
paper and read, “Please call at your earliest 
convenience. Meadows and Crum.” 

They are our lawyers — have been for genera- 
tions. My former meetings with them had been. 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


13 


for the most part, embarrassing. Hnnted by 
some pertinacious dun, I had occasionally fled 
to their chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields as to 
a sanctuary, and they had always responded 
nobly to my appeals. I smiled to think how 
continually and tactfully they had warned me 
against backing other men’s bills and such-like 
futilities. Well, at any rate that sort of thing 
was over. As a bachelor — I still assured myself 
that I should live and die celibate, with an eye 
to the possible fate which might be listening — 
I should not be so badly off. I could look for- 
ward to commanding the regiment some day 
without beggaring myself Little rifts of sun- 
light like this began to break through the fog 
of my depression, and when I strolled forth to 
call upon my solicitors, I had pretty well re- 
gained the self-possession which that sudden 
announcement of a tardy good-luck had 
knocked completely out of my system. 

Crum received me. Meadows is an anachro- 
nistic figment of the imagination long deposited 
in a Hampstead vault. His partner continues 
the business with other partners, who are con- 
sidered to be sufficiently dignified by the title of 
Co. He is a benignant old man, with an un- 
blemished bald head and character. I believe a 
warm heart beats under his deliberation, and he 
has shown good faith and personal service to 
my family for more years than I dare say he 
cares to count. He welcomed me with a quaint 
subdued tolerance hovering on the outskirts of 
the chastened air he thought befitting the 


14 BEYOND THE GfiEAT SOUTH WALL 

mournful occasion. For myself I will say 
frankly and at once that I could pretend no 
regret for the accident which led to my being 
Crum’s future client. I had never even seen my 
uncle since I was at Eton. In point of fact I 
felt the matter to be, personally, only one for 
self-gratulation. 

“Desperately sudden, my lord,” quoth the old 
gentleman, making me twitch in my chair as I 
heard myself addressed by my title for the first 
time, “desperately sudden. We received advices 
from his late lordship on financial matters only 
a week ago, and now — it’s come like a thunder- 
clap, I assure you.” 

“These are matters of fate, my dear Mr. 
Crum,” said I piously. “I suppose there’s no 
doubt about the report?” 

“None whatever, as I learn this morning. 
We cabled his lordship’s valet last night and 
got the press message confirmed. Death took 
place up-country, it seems. Baines, his man, 
talks of bringing the body to the coast and 
sailing next week by the Pacific Mail Steamer.” 

“That of course is the only decent and orderly 
thing to do,” said I, “and no doubt you’ll 
kindly see to all these matters — arranging for 
the funeral and so forth. But what about 
funds now? I expect this horrible succession 
duty will make me as poor as a rat for the 
first year or two, won’t it?” 

He lifted his pince-nez, regarding me with a 
curious expression. I immediately divined by a 
sort of intuition that he purposed giving him- 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


15 


self the pleasure of surprising me. There was a 
decorously cunning light in the corner of his eye 
that made him appear not unlike a respectable 
and intelligent magpie. 

“I think you and your uncle were compara- 
tively strangers to each other, were you not? 
Ah, I thought so. You have the impression, 
doubtless, that he was testless by choice and 
temperament alone? I can assure you, in that 
case, that you are mistaken. Your uncle, for 
the last few years of his life at any rate, has 
been dominated by a very determined purpose.” 

“Philanthropic or personal?” I queried. “Not 
the former I sincerely trust, or the pickings will 
be even less than I hope for. I know he’s been 
roaming the wide world mysteriously ever since 
I can remember, but I thought it was the in- 
herited taint of travel. We’ve had a lot of 
sailors in the family, Mr. Crum.” 

“That is very true,” answered the man of 
law impressively, “and in a certain indirect 
sense I won’t say you are altogether wrong. 
But the simplest way will be to put the whole 
matter before you as I learned it from your 
uncle. Excuse me a moment.” 

He turned to where a row of tin boxes, shiny 
and white-lettered, lined the walls along a 
broad shelf Taking down one labelled “Vis- 
count Heatherslie,” he took up a key that had 
been lying handy upon the desk and opened 
it. He extracted a bundle of papers tied in 
red tape, and began sorting them with neat 
precision. I occupied myself in wondering with 


16 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

unaffected curiosity what on earth was com- 
ing next. 

Of course Uncle Leonard had been a wanderer 
on the wide earth, but he had always been to 
me not so much a man as an impression. My 
poor dear mother used to remark occasionally^ 
“I see your uncle’s wintering in Egypt,” or 
“Leonard’s in Japan again,” wondering al- 
ways, as women do, what could induce him to 
leave the comforts of his native isle for such 
outlandish realms. But I had paid but slight 
attention. Uncle Leonard was nothing to me — 
I was his heir-at-law, of course, but then he had 
always been expected to marry late in life, as 
most of his ancestors had done, and I had never 
troubled about him. I remember his coming 
down one Fourth at Eton and stumbling across 
me, more by accident than intention, and tip- 
ping me a fiver. But that was a feat he had 
never followed up and improved upon in later 
life, so I had let him drop out of my calcula- 
tions, and he — well, he never spent three weeks 
of the year in England, I suppose. Some men 
have the regular gypsy taint in the blood. 
They must move in aimless joy of moving, or 
they absolutely shrivel up for want of occupa. 
tion. The mania in his case was more or less 
inherited, I knew. Half-a-dozen of our fore- 
bears have been adventurers — not to say bucca- 
neers — in the past. They pop up in various 
capacities all across the pages of Elizabethan 
and eighteenth century histor3^ So the fact 
that in my late uncle’s case there was more be- 


A GREAT DEPRESSION 


17 


hind this activity than was his by birth and 
ancestry came to me truly as a surprise. I 
awaited developments pondering many possi- 
bilities. 

Old Crum found what he wanted at last. 
Replacing all the papers but one— rather a mus- 
ty-looking document — he kennelled his legs com- 
fortably beneath his writing-table and began 
his revelation, tapping his fingers upon the 
dusty law books before him to emphasize his 
remarks. 

I’ll give you the tale as he gave it to me. 
Then judge me if I was a consummate fool or 
not, in that I followed in the footsteps of my 
uncle. 


2 


CHAPTER II 

THE TALE OF A COINCIDENCE 

“The late Viscount Heatherslie,” said Mr. 
Crum, tapping the desk before him like a school- 
master demanding silence for a lecture, “was a 
collector, and at the same time an economist. 
These you will probably think are walks in life 
entirely incompatible one with the other. I 
will explain further. Though he lived far within 
his income, he had the mania for collection and 
gratified it. But he did this by making it a 
rule never to buy what had a merely temporary 
or sentimental value, but only what was likely 
to be intrinsically marketable.- I never knew a 
man with a sounder sense of finance or one 
who, without professional knowledge, made 
such use of unprofessional experience. I doubt 
if he ever struck a bad bargain in his life. 
You will to-day reap the benefit of his judg- 
ment. I do not think I exaggerate w^hen I say 
that you may safely count on his treasures 
fetching a sum of not less than one hundred 
thousand pounds.” 

I gasped in amazement, nearly bouncing from 
my chair. excited shuffling upset a blob of 
ink from the inkstand before me. With an air 
of respectful deprecation Crum began to mop it 


THE TALE OF A COINCIDENCE 19 

Up methodically, before answering the questions 
I fired at him like bullets. 

“Great Heavens !” I exclaimed, “the leery old 
dog! You mean to tell me in sober earnest 
that he has amassed all that money by simple 
grubbing after curios, when we thought he just 
roamed around for mere amusement and love 
of travel. Where has he stuck them all? Not 
at Kilberran, I sincerely hope, or they’re all 
rotten with mildew by now. And what are 
they? Pictures, bronzes, china? Why, neither 
my mother nor my poor old dad had an inkling 
of it. Great Scott! One hundred thousand 
pounds. Now really, don’t you think you may 
be exaggerating, my dear Mr. Crum?” 

“I may say that it is not a habit to which I 
am given, my lord,” he answered dryly, “but 
it will not be hard to convince you. The col- 
lection has been valued by more than one ex- 
pert, and the lowest figure rendered by these 
gentlemen was a hundred and thirty thousand 
pounds, and the collection has been added to 
since then.” 

“But what in the name of goodness can be 
worth all that money? Why, it would take a 
large gallery to house pictures up to that 
figure.” 

“Certainly. But I may as well explain at 
once that the whole collection is within these 
walls. It is in a large safe in my cellars. It 
consists wholly of coins.” 

“Coins!” I bawled delightedly, “then I hope 
the half of them have her Majesty’s face on 


20 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


them, God bless her. I see what you’re getting 
at. You mean the old boy was a miser.” 

He drew himself back into his chair with an 
air of offence. 

“I am not given to jest on business matters,” 
he said in his stateliest manner. “No; youi 
uncle was simply one of the first numismatists 
of the century. His is the finest harvest of 
ancient coins ever made by any private indi- 
vidual. If you see fit to turn it to its market- 
able worth, you will create an excitement 
among collectors unparalleled for the last five 
decades. And till the catalogues are published, 
not one of them will have an idea of the treas- 
ures they will find listed there.” 

“Well, as far as I am concerned, I don’t mind 
how soon they’re gratified and surprised,” said 
I; “but I should like to have a look at the lot 
now, if it’s not seriously inconveniencing you. 
Can we descend to visit them?” for I itched to 
view this astounding hoard with my very own 
eyes. 

“Of course, my lord. It would be only nat- 
ural that you should wish to inspect such an 
important part of your inheritance. But I have 
something more to say. It was not in mere 
zeal for collecting that your uncle had lately 
travelled so widely. I have another astonish- 
ment in store for you— not so entirely agree- 
able, no doubt, but out of the common, I think 
I may say absolutely out of the common.” 

“Well, as we’re out of the range of coins this 
time then, I trust it’s nothing less than bank- 


THE TALE OP A COINCIDENCE 


21 


notes,” I answered. “But for goodness sake 
what is it?” I added impatiently, for his self- 
important deliberation began to get on my 
nerves. 

He did not suffer himself to be in the slightest 
degree flurried by my impatience. His sen- 
tences, in fact, seemed to gather a yet more 
leisurely accent as he unfolded his tale. 

“You must let me tell the thing in my own 
way, my lord. It will be far more conclusive 
than jerking it out at you in scraps. The facts 
in sequence were as follows — 

“Among the family treasures which have 
come down the centuries — and I sincerely wish 
there had been more of them — was a certain 
amount of old coins which have been in the 
custody of my firm for at least five generations. 
They comprised for the most part specimens of 
the gold and silver coinage of most European 
countries during the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries. Some were of great value. Some 
were by no means rare. Evidently one of your 
ancestors — probably, I should say. Sir John 
Dorinecourte, the famous Elizabethan admiral 
— had the craze of collection, which has since 
broken out in your late uncle’s case. At any 
rate the box contained moidores, zecchins, 
pesos, crowns, and every sort of currency of 
every known land — known to our ancestors of 
that time, at least — to a very considerable 
amount. The mere bullion, I should say, would 
be worth a considerable sum. Among them 
were, however, a couple of gold pieces placed 


^2 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

apart, and these had no signifieation placed 
opposite them in the catalogue, and bore no 
sign either on the face or the reverse in any 
language known at the present day.” 

“It sounds charmingly mysterious, my dear 
Mr. Crum,” I interrupted. “Now, you aren’t 
going to tell me that the secret still remains 
unfathomed?” 

“My lord, my lord,” said the old fellow en- 
treatingly, “you must allow me to tell you the 
thing methodically, or not at all. If I’m hur- 
ried I shall forget some detail, and I have given 
time and effort to memorize the matter com- 
pletely.” 

I apologized humbly, settling myself back in 
my chair resignedly to hear the thing out with 
no further interruption. Crum continued in his 
slow, modulated tones. 

“I think that it was the sight of that hoard, 
when your uncle saw it at his accession to the 
title, which first woke in him the craze for col- 
lecting. He no doubt reflected that here was 
the nucleus of an exceedingly fine numismatic 
museum, and from that day he set himself stead- 
ily to add to it, with an increasing knowledge 
of his subject, of which you are now reaping the 
benefit. But those two unknown coins were 
always a sore mystery to him. Many a time 
have I seen him take them up — he used to visit 
me two or three times every year to place what 
he had possessed himself of in that time with 
the rest — and turn them over and over in his 
fingers wistfully, studying every line and figure 


THE TALE OP A COINCIDENCE 28 

as if there must be some concealed clue which 
he had missed. But it was only last year that 
he gained the trace which put him on the road 
to success, and also, as it has unfortunately 
turned out, to death as well.” 

“What!” I shouted, nearly jumping out of my 
chair. “Do you mean to say ” 

He held up his hand deprecatingly. 

“Please, my lord, please restrain your impa- 
tience. You shall have every detail in good 
time, I assure you. I only mean to say that it 
was in pursuit of his intense desire to solve the 
origin of those coins that he was travelling in 
Central America, where he caught the fever 
which has been fatal to him. The rest I will 
tell you as shortly as possible. 

“It was last year, as I was saying, that the 
first trace came to his hand by the merest acci- 
dent. His lordship was in Portugal. From 
there I got a letter from him on business mat- 
ters, and at the end— his lordship was aware 
that, of course in a modified form, I was inter- 
ested in his quest — he remarked, ‘A most extra- 
or dnary thing has happened. I have found a 
dozen more of the unknown coins, and what is 
more an ancient document — no less than a letter 
written by Sir John Dorinecourte, my ancestor. 
I will tell you more on my return.’ It was 
some three weeks after that that his lordship 
came to see me. 

“Nearly his first words to me were, ‘Well, Mr. 
Crum, the mystery of the coins is pretty well 
solved, but a greater mystery has arisen on the 


24 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ashes of the first. The gold pieces are Mayan.’ 
The word Mayan, I must confess, conveyed 
nothing to me at the time, but he very soon 
explained it. The Mayans inhabit — though per- 
haps your lordship knows as much — the land of 
Yucatan to the south of Mexico. They are a 
wild and savage race, but there is every reason 
to believe that centuries ago theirs was a 
mighty empire. The coins dated from this 
extinct civilization of long ago. And now for 
the method by which your uncle ascertained as 
much. 

“He was wandering along the side-streets of 
Lisbon one afternoon, when he espied a small 
curio shop. Outside the window were dis- 
played various articles of furniture, china, etc., 
for sale, and among these was a curious cameo 
brooch which rather took his fancy. He en- 
tered to make a bid for it, and managed to 
secure it for what he considered a fair price. 
He wandered listlessly about the shop, as the 
woman in charge was placing it in a box for 
him, and suddenly came upon a glass-covered 
box full of coins. You may imagine his surprise 
when, among the rows of copper and silver 
pieces, he saw staring up at him no less than 
twelve gold replicas of these mysterious coins of 
his own. His astonishment was great, but he 
managed to conceal it from the shop-keeper 
when he asked her the price she demanded for 
these ‘medals,’ as he prudently called them. 

“She named one very little higher than their 
simple worth as bullion, intimating at the same 


THE TALE OP A COINCIDENCE 


^5 


time that as they did not seem to commemo- 
rate any special event, customers for them had 
been few. She went on to relate how she came 
to possess them. A strange story indeed. With 
some pride she told your uncle that her hus- 
band was really of noble blood, but sunk to a 
narrow pittance beyond the keeping up of his 
title. Ruined by the failure of vintage after 
vintage, he had at last compounded with his 
creditors by giving up his landed possessions, 
and she and he were now living by the sale of 
art curios, a good proportion of which she 
sadly explained was from their own dwindling 
inheritance. 

“Further inquiry elicited the fact that the 
‘medals’ had been discovered in an ancient box 
of cedar wood, which had been left to rot and 
moulder in an attic of their former mansion, 
where, wrapped in papers covered with writ- 
ing in a foreign tongue, nigh fifty of them had 
been found strung together on a slender chain. 
She pointed out that all of them had a small 
hole beside the rim, and your uncle remembered 
that the same thing was noticeable in those he 
possessed himself. 

“The first and most natural thing was to in- 
quire for the paper wrappings, but for some time 
these could not be discovered, and it was feared 
they were lost. However, the next day his 
lordship received a message from the woman to 
the effect that she had found them thrust away 
among a heap of similar refuse and that they 
were at his service if he chose to purchase them 


26 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

for a small sum. Your uncle did not dally in 
returning to the shop, as you may suppose. 
You may also imagine his surprise when he 
found that one of the documents was not only 
in English, but absolutely signed by his own 
ancestor. You shall see the original, so I will 
not stop to describe it. It is of the other docu- 
ment that I wish particularly to speak. 

“It was inscribed on a peculiar yellow-look- 
ing fabric, more of the nature of linen than of 
paper or parchment, and experts have since 
decided that the coloring matter used as ink is 
the fluid emitted by the octopus. But the most 
curious part was the writing, if writing it can 
properly be called. It consisted of squares, 
oblongs, parallels, and other geometric figures 
ranged in a sequence which was not easy to 
understand, but the chief point of interest was 
that these figures resembled in every particular 
the figures on the coins. His lordship imme- 
diately and willingly paid what was asked for 
them, took his passage straightway home to 
England, and armed with his document paid a 
visit to the British Museum to get what expert 
help he could in translating them. 

“It is an extraordinary thing how circum- 
stances dovetail into one another. No sooner 
had he entered the department, where he had so 
often been before to get light on his coins, than 
he was greeted with the following question by 
Professor Barstock, the head, before he had 
even mentioned his errand. 

“ ‘I am particularly pleased to see you. Lord 


'^Un TALE OF A COINCIDENCE 27 

Heatherslie,’ said the Professor, ‘because infor- 
mation has lately come to hand which I think 
will settle the origin of your coins, which we 
have so often pored over. Monsieur Lessaution 
of Paris, the well-known Egyptologist, has dis- 
covered that there is a connecting link between 
the ancient Egyptian script and that on the 
monuments of Yucatan. It seems absurd, con- 
sidering that they are divided by five thousand 
miles of sea, but he puts his points very plau- 
sibly, and I think you should see him.’ 

“When you have seen the other paper which 
your uncle discovered — the one in English — I 
think you will understand that these words 
came as a most astounding confirmation of his 
suspicion that he was on the right track at 
last. He simply opened his bag and spread the 
mysterious scroll before Professor Barstock, 
laying one of the coins beside it. 

“You may imagine the astonishment of the 
latter on seeing not only the coin with which he 
was familiar, but the scroll covered with similar 
symbols. Nor did he fail to astonish your uncle 
in his turn. Taking him to another part of the 
building he showed him some grey, fibrous- 
looking slabs of dried pulp, and they too were 
covered with the oblong, square, and parallel 
figures of the document, only that instead of 
being raised they were indented. They were, as 
Mr. Barstock explained, squeezings, taken from 
the temple facade at Chichitza, where M. Les- 
saution was now conducting his investigations. 

“The Frenchman’s theory was that by com- 


^8 


BEYOND THE GEEAT SOUTH WALL 


paring the Egyptian symbol with that in Yuca- 
tan, and using the grammar and accidence of 
the former language as a guide to the latter, 
these inscriptions, which have as yet been unde- 
cipherable, would be made clear, and much 
would be learned about the Mayan civilization 
of long ago. 

“This was quite enough for your uncle. He 
decided that he would not wait for M. Lessau- 
tion’s return, which was not expected for an- 
other six months, but would cross the Atlantic 
and interview him on the spot where he was 
conducting his experiments. After reading the 
letter left by your ancestor, I can quite under- 
stand that to a man of leisure like his lordship, 
and a man with a taste for wandering to boot, 
the fascination of such a quest would be great. 
At any rate he sailed for Greytown about five 
months ago, and with the exception of a single 
letter purely on business matters I have heard 
no word from him since. You can imagine that 
his death has come as a shock.” 

“Well,” said I, “I am certainly astonished, 
but I cannot say I am greatly moved by your 
tale, Mr. Crum. It would certainly never have 
occurred to me to cross three or four thousand 
miles of ocean to interview a foreign savant 
about a coin or a document. But then, you 
see, I am not made that way.” 

“Very likely, my lord,” submitted the lawyer, 
“but you will pardon me if I say that you have 
not seen the letter by Admiral Sir John. That 
sheds a very curious light on the question, and 


THE TALE OF A COINCIDENCE 


29 


certainly adds vastly to the interest one of your 
family must take in it. But I will show it to 
you at your leisure.” 

“I am as leisured now as I am likely to be for 
the rest of time,” said I, “but before I see the 
letter I should just like to squint at the coins, 
if you are not particularly occupied for the next 
hour.” 

He rose at once and preceded me to the outer 
office, where a door opened on to a flight of 
stone steps. Down these he guided me, usher- 
ing me at last into a broad, whitewashed cel- 
lar, wherein not less than half-a-dozen great 
safes faced each other from wall to wall. He 
clicked a key in the lock of one, and turned a 
handle. The great door swung back and 
showed row upon row of numbered sliding 
drawers, lined with velvet, and covered — every 
square inch of them — with coins of every degree 
of dirt, ancientry, and denomination. One 
drawer alone was nearly empty, and this held 
two gold pieces, and placed beside them on the 
velvet a sheet of ancient paper, covered with 
crabbed writing and faint with the dust of 
ages. The lawyer took it up and unfolded it 
carefully, and then I saw for the first time the 
screed that sent my uncle speeding across the 
ocean at its behest, and which was to leave its 
mark on my life also. 


CHAPTER III 


THE TESTIMONY OF SIR JOHN DORINECOURTE, 
KNT. 

The lawyer pushed baek the drawers methodi- 
cally, clanged to the safe door, and turned to 
me as I laboured toilsomely to decipher the faint 
scratchy handwriting. He held the two coins 
in his hand. 

“I think,” he said slowly, “if you will permit 
me to read this document out to you, you will 
find it much easier to interpret if you desire to 
read it yourself a second time. I may say that 
I have conned it pretty thoroughly — it took 
time to master it, I confess — and faint and yel- 
low as it is, I can decipher it at sight.” 

I was only too glad to accept this benevo- 
lent offer, and we returned to the upper office 
again. Here I settled myself back in my chair, 
old Crum found and very deliberately donned 
his spectacles, unfolded and smoothed the sheets 
of dirty parchment, and then began to expound 
the writing as follows — 

“I, John Dorinecourte, of the parish of Sell- 
wood, in the county of Somerset, here make 
oath and declare that the writing hereto, to 
which I have set my hand and seal, is the very 
truth, so help me God. 


TESTIMONY OP SIR J. DORINECOURTE 31 

“On the seventeenth day of August, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand five hundred 
and seventy-eight, being in command of the ship 
Pride of Barnstaple, and Captain Fowler of 
that port and Dom Pedro da Suhares of Ma- 
ceira being my fellow adventurers, we were in 
mid-ocean, having passed the straits discovered 
by the Admiral Magellan about two days, and 
were bearing north along the coasts of the 
Indies. It happened then that one of the ship’s 
company at mast-head hailed the deck, declar- 
ing a ship to approach; whereat we, as was 
but reasonable, supposed the same to be some 
Spanish craft, and beat to quarters, tricing up 
boarding nettings and getting powder on deck. 
But as we approached nearer to the strange 
sail, we perceived it to be a lateen and under 
no control of steering, for she yawed and came 
about, and then of a sudden fell away upon the 
other tack, being water-logged, and as it 
seemed deserted. So, calling to me the crew of 
the pinnace, I set to board her, which, the day 
being calm, we accomplished easily enough. 
Then were we horribly astonished to find upon 
her decks no living man save one, and him at 
the point of death. Six bodies there were, and 
one living soul, and the men were a fair and 
noble company, but like to no other men whom 
I have seen. Now Da Suhares, who hath been 
in Mexico — for being renegade he joined our 
vessel at La Guayra after slaying the nephew 
of the governor in duello— protested that in 
most respects these unfortunates resembled the 


32 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

inhabitants of that ill-fated empire, now rav- 
ished and enslaved by the devil-serving Span- 
iards. Which might be like enough, for the men 
were covered with gold ornaments, and 
bedecked with the plumage of bright tropic 
birds, such as is the custom of these tribes as 
I have always understood. ’Twas evidently 
thirst that had brought them all to their death, 
for no drop of sweet water could we find upon 
the craft, and the tongue of the living man 
swelled forth from his lips, forcing his jaws 
asunder, and his sweatless skin cracked as tense 
parchment. We hasted therefore to bring our 
surgeon, and water with a little wine. With 
difficulty he swallowed it and revived, though 
but slightly. He gazed upon us as one af- 
frighted, and shuddered, placing his hand upon 
his breast as if holding there what he would 
fain conceal. By which, I take it, he imagined 
us Spaniards, and expected their deviltries, as 
well he might. But we spoke to him gently, 
and tended him, taking sails to make him a 
couch to lie upon. Yet he rallied but little, 
murmuring we knew not what, nor could Da 
Suhares understand him, though he had know- 
ledge of some few words of Mexican. 

“Then the poor wretch raised his finger 
slowly and pointed towards us, and afterward 
held up his open hand many times, which we 
took to mean that he had been of a numerous 
company; making gesture also to our ship 
which swung, heaved to, some quarter of a 
mile away, he swept his hands abroad wildly 


TESTIMONY OF SIR J. DORINECOURTE 33 

towards the waste of waters, implying doubt- 
less that his was one of a great fleet of vessels. 

“As in a flash came to me then the tale 
which was at that time a by-word in the South 
Seas, of the great expedition of the natives 
which had set sail from the coasts of Southern 
Mexico, the which was witnessed by the Span- 
ish forces advancing from the north, yet could 
in no way be prevented of them. Mayax is the 
name of the land whence they sailed, and the 
fiendish warfare of the Spaniards — ravishers of 
women and slaughterers of babes as they be — 
had so prevailed by terror upon these simple 
folk, that they had committed themselves to 
the deep to escape their villainies, and had 
vanished, forty sail or more, no man knew 
whither. 

“The memory of this tale came back to me, 
as I say, vividly — and indeed it had been the 
common talk of every port along the coasts of 
the Southern Indies this two months past — and 
I pointed inquiringly to the poor fellow as he 
languished and lay dying at my feet, and then 
swept my finger northward as if determining 
that to be the direction whence he came. 
Whereat he nodded, and then swung his hard 
southward again, as if to say that now he 
sailed from the opposite direction. Then re- 
luctantly, as it were, he drew from his breast 
the scroll which I have here set aside for your 
care and consideration, and I beheld for the 
first time those symbols and the presentation 
of that wondrous beast which are to me now 
3 


34 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

as the alphabet for familiarity. As he gave me 
the relic, he feebly took from his wrist the 
golden bracelet which hung haggard thereon, 
and from his neck a string of gold pieces. The 
armlet he gave to me, and the necklet to Da 
Suhares, as if in thanks for our consideration 
which came thus too late. Then with the last 
throb of strength left in his withered frame he 
raised himself from the loins, and turning, faced 
the sun which sank cloud-free and ruddy into 
the open main. Bowing himself towards its 
fading glories, he spread abroad his hands 
with a single word and fell back and died, un- 
conquered remnant of a conquered race. And 
for a space we stared silently at the dumb 
dead, wondering, half afraid, but full of pity for 
his sad case, and of admiration for his uncom- 
plaining end. 

“Then did Da Suhares, Master Fowler, and I 
take counsel together upon the matter to im- 
agine what this might mean. For I called to 
their memory the tale of the escaping Mayans, 
and Da Suhares vouched for the truth of the 
same. For his own brother had been of the 
company of conquistadores that had advanced 
south from Mexico, had seen the men of the 
escaping fleet fare out into the deep, and had 
with others made strenuous effort to overtake 
and capture them before they launched forth 
to sea. For report went that they carried with 
them the ancient treasures of that hapless race 
for centuries back. Adding that within a 
month an expedition of adventurers had set 


TESTIMONY OF SIR J. DORINECOURTE 35 

forth to track them along the southern coasts, 
but had returned empty and rewardless. And 
common talk held that he who should find that 
company would also find wealth beyond de- 
sire or conception. Here he doubted not that 
we had one of them. For when we came to 
examine their barque there was great store of 
gold upon her, not as treasure indeed for the 
most part, but put to plain uses; for though 
the ornaments upon each corpse were of gold, 
yet were the very baling vessels made of wood 
shod with golden bands and held with strips 
of golden metal. Upon each man’s breast also 
was a medal, or some such decoration, bear- 
ing upon it the similitude of the same won- 
drous beast that appears upon the mystic scroll 
which you have herewith. So we reasoned 
upon the matter, and in much thought the so- 
lution thereof came to us. 

‘‘The expedition had sailed, and had come to 
some secure sanctuary as they had desired. 
Now they sent back this small company to 
advise their fellows left in bondage of the same, 
that they too might leave their own land, 
over-run by the Spaniards, and come also to 
safety and a sure dwelling-place. And the more 
we thought on this, the more the truth of it 
came home to our minds. 

“Now this I write in the glorious year of our 
Lord, one thousand five hundred and eighty- 
eight, when the Lord hath, by the destruction 
of the Spanish oppressor, so signally shown 
His favour to His children who hope in Him. 


36 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


The news of which final deliverance hath come 
to us long months after by chance of our meet- 
ing Captain Bostock of Bristol, who saileth in 
the Guinea and West India Trade. Ten years 
have I and my comrades, Da Suhares and Cap- 
tain Fowler, sought wearily for this people, 
and naught hath come to us in reward. Yet 
have we gotten to ourselves sufficient of this 
world’s goods, in that we have taken more 
than one of his Catholic Majesty’s treasure gal- 
leons, and three years agone five of his pearl- 
ing fleet which we fell upon when they were 
storm-sundered from their fellows. Rich are 
we therefore in possessions, but not yet in 
knowledge, and the madness of the quest hath 
bitten into the souls of all of us. Not an island, 
not a bay, not a single river’s mouth, have we 
missed for nigh two thousand weary miles, 
but unavailingly. And now I draw into years, 
but I cannot rest from it. 

“Thus have I put down the matter plainly 
for my children to wot of, and if I come not 
back to them, a charge do I lay upon them. 
Ten years have I sought, and wrought, and 
toiled, sparing none of mine and least of all 
myself, and it may well be that from this last 
adventure I come not back. Ten years, there- 
fore, do I lay upon you that come after me, ten 
years each of you unto the tenth generation, 
and the blessing of the Almighty be with you 
in your search. Do the matter diligently, but 
in secret, lest it come to the ears of the Span- 
ish folk, and they triumph at the last. If ye 


TESTIMONY OP SIR j. DORINECOURTE 37 

find this people ( and of a verity I know in my 
soul that they still walk God’s earth) be to 
them a safeguard from their enemies, using the 
might of England to bulwark them from their 
foes, and get to your race and family great 
honour. So do, and my blessing be upon you. 
Forego this quest, any one of you, and my 
curse rest with you unceasingly. To which 
charge I put my hand and seal this nineteenth 
day of December in the Annus Mirabilis, one 
thousand five hundred and eighty-eight. 

“John Dorinecourte, Knt.” 

Crum placed the musty sheets of lettering on 
the table before him, solemnly took off his spec- 
tacles and wiped them, and then stared across 
quietly at me without a word, as if he would 
let this astonishing balderdash sink deeply into 
my all too shallow soul. There was a silence 
in the office, unbroken save by the buzzing of 
the blue-bottles at the windows and the dis- 
tant roar of the Strand, filtered by intervening 
acres of brickwork. For my part I found no 
words to express my emotions. For really it 
came upon me as a shock to think what crack- 
brained enthusiasts our fathers were. Here was 
a sound, apparently intelligent, old British sea- 
man, who had knocked about the world more 
than a little, worrying himself to set curses 
on the heads of his unborn descendants if they 
should fail to be just such fools as himself 
He meets a half-dozen of forlorn savages in 
mid-ocean, by purely circumstantial evidence 


38 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

connects them with another band of niggers 
of whom he has only got word by hearsay, 
and proceeds to spend ten years of his life in 
tracking the latter to a lair which probably 
never existed. And not satisfied, as I say, with 
this astounding waste of time and energy, but 
he expects ten other fools to do the same. I 
stared, therefore, at the good Crum with these 
unvoiced musings extremely vivid in my brain, 
the while I thanked God softly below my breath 
for civilization and common-sense. 

It was the lawyer who broke the silence be- 
fore it got strained. 

“I may say, my lord,” he remarked, “that 
we have compared this writing with the signa- 
ture of your ancestor’s marriage record in Sell- 
wood church. It is identical, and there seems 
to be no doubt that it is authentic. I would 
remind you that it is beyond question that he 
spent many years in what was called ‘The 
Indies’ at that date — the Southern Seas of 
America, in point of fact — where he left the rep- 
utation of a valiant sailor — I’m afraid I must 
say buccaneer. But you must remember that 
times were different,” he added hastily, feeling 
that as a supporter of the law he must not 
seem to favour equivocal methods. 

“That I believe is entirely true,” I conceded. 
“Tradition has it that he was one of the most 
energetic old pirates of his day. But may I 
ask how you propose to explain his document 
getting to Lisbon into the shop of the local 
rubbish dealer, or whatever he may have been? 


TESTIMONY OP SIR J. DORINECOURTE 30 

\\ hy did it not come home to those for whom 
it was intended? My unfortunate forefathers 
for twelve generations have had these curses 
hanging over them, and have lived in comfort- 
able ignorance.” 

“I don’t think there is much difficulty in find- 
ing explanation,” he replied deliberately. “You 
know that Sir John did perish out there, and 
to this day no news has been heard of his ulti- 
mate fate. My own suspicions are that Da 
Suhares — by the way, the people from whom 
your uncle purchased these documents bore the 
name of Soares — very possibly brought him 
treacherously to his death to possess the wealth 
that they had reaped in company. It is a very 
possible solution of the mystery, and we are 
not likely at this time of day to find a better 
one. But I must say, my lord, that to my 
mind the authenticity of the document is ab- 
solutely determined, and I have had experience 
of similar matters, I may say, for over half-a- 
century.” 

“It’s plausible enough,” said I, shifting my 
ground, “but not good enough in my discre- 
'ii3n to send a man fussing over to Yucatan 
for further explanations. Supposing the thing 
is absolutely correct, both in itself and in its 
deductions, what good is to be made of it at 
this time of day? Surely my uncle did not ex- 
pect to find this unknown race after they have 
been lost three centuries or more? At any rate 
I shouldn’t have thought it of him. He showed 
no signs of brain softening ten years ago — 


40 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALE 

or twelve, was it? — when I last interviewed 
him.” 

He leant his elbows on the table, and drew 
the tips of his fingers together in a judicial at- 
titude before he made answer in his intolerably 
cautious accent. Then he delivered himself of 
his opinions weightily. 

“I think you are forgetting the other scroll — 
the one in symbol which was purchased with 
the one now before you. Recollect that if this 
could be interpreted, the mystery in all proba- 
bility was one no longer. Your uncle was a 
man of leisure, fond of travel, and with the 
collecting mania. I am bound to say that un- 
der these circumstances I can understand his 
attitude. He knew that in Central America 
was the one man who could translate — if any- 
body could — this extremely recondite document. 
He also knew that in any case at his journey’s 
end he would find a vast field of interest in 
the lately discovered monuments of Yucatan. 
I must say that considering these things I 
should have been surprised if he had not gone. 
If you think of the astounding possibilities 
opened up to him in discovery if he did find a 
meaning to this scroll, and remember the en- 
thusiastic nature of his temperament on mat- 
ters of this kind, no room for wonder is left — 
at any rate not to my mind.” 

I was fairly dumfounded. To think that a 
little cut-and-dried old solicitor could absolutely 
find, not only excuses for this absurd conduct, 
but a positive encouragement, was more than 


TESTIMONY OF SIR J. DORINECOURTE 41 

I could have believed possible. I gaped upon 
him. 

“My dear Mr. Crum/’ said I pityingly, “we 
are not in the sixteenth century. I can con- 
ceive a rampant adventurer like Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh, let us say — a man with the heart of a 
lion and the brains of a four-year-old child — 
setting out on some such wild-goose chase, but 
that a British peer, of good health and wealth, 
nigh threescore years of age ” 

He interrupted. His spectacles were tilted 
rakishly on the bridge of his nose, and his eyes 
positively glinted behind them. He absolutely 
barked an exclamation at me. 

“Yes, my lord; he was all you say. And I 
am not ashamed to add, that in his case, and 
with his opportunity, I should have done the 
same!” 

“You!” I shouted — yelled, in fact, so taken 
aback was I. “You would have gone to this 
unspeakable climate, to seek out a forsaken 
French adventurer, to get a clue to a fudged-up 
cryptogram three musty centuries old ! Mr. 
Crum, Mr. Crum, I should have as soon be- 
lieved it of the Lord Chancellor.” 

He had regained his aplomb by now, and 
arranged his papers methodically infeont of 
him before he ventured another word. Then 
he looked up again, his calm and judicial air 
entirely regained. 

“I have no wish to pose as a sentimentalist, 
or to have it thought that the mere glamour 
of a mystery would carry me outside the realms 


42 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


of common-sense. But I must say, my lord, 
with all due deference, that it seems to me that 
your uncle was simply guided by weight of* 
evidence in what he did. From the facts con- 
nected with its finding and those since elicited, 
I should say there can be no doubt that the 
document before you was written by Sir John 
Dorinecourte, and that the matters detailed in 
it were true. The good knight’s supposition 
about the identity of the persons he encountered 
seems to me extremely reasonable. Your uncle 
had nothing in his life to check his desires for 
adventure and discovery. It would have been 
marvellous to me if he had let such an oppor- 
tunity escape him. I can see too,” he went 
on with a smile, “that our temperaments differ, 
my lord, and that though you are the soldier 
and I the lawyer, our blood flows with an ir- 
regularity that is not in sympathy with our 
professions.” 

It is not pleasant to be called a coward by 
your own lawyer, I confess, and I will own 
that I flew into a rage. I rose and took my 
hat. 

“Thanks, Mr. Crum,” I said coldly, “it is 
more than probable that I am in every par- 
ticular the absolute inferior of my late uncle. 
However, I fear I am using your valuable time 
for reflections and deductions which are not 
professional” (put him back in his place there, 
thinks I). “Is there any other business you 
wish to see me about this morning?” 

The old chap flushed as he rose in his turn. 


TESTIMONY OF SIR J. DORINECOURTE 

“I — I’m sure I trust I have not been offensive 
or indiscreet, my lord,” he stammered. “I only 
wished to prove that in my poor opinion your 
uncle was justified in the course he took. There 
is naturally much I should like to talk over 
with your lordship in connection with the 
estate, but it can wait till the will is proved. 
But perhaps you will not consider it necessary 
to employ me further.” 

I saw I had hurt the worthy old chap badly, 
and could do no less than make immediate 
amends. 

“Is thy servant a dog,” said I, holding out 
my hand, “that he should do this thing? No, 
my dear Mr. Crum, though I may be of a 
slow-blooded, not to say poltroon-like spirit, 
and you are still in the midst of the middle 
ages, if you will excuse my saying so, as far as 
the practicalities of life go, I’m sure we shall 
get on together as well as two thorough op- 
posites always do, and I can’t say more than 
that.” Then I wrung his hand heartily, and 
fled, but for the life of me I couldn’t say for 
certain that I was right and he was wrong. 


CHAPTER IV 

WHAT BAINES KNEW 

It was three weeks after my first interview 
with Crum that I found myself travelling down 
to Liverpool to meet Baines, my uncle’s man, 
who was bringing home his body. It was a 
dull, rainy, depressing day as I stood upon the 
dock-side above the landing-stage, and watched 
the tender come sidling up with the crowd of 
umbrellaed passengers upon her deck, and my 
errand was not of a kind to elevate the spirits. 
Beyond the mournful circumstances that had 
brought me there, I had a sense of foreboding 
as if undefined e\dl was coming to me with the 
dead, though, considering my very slender ac- 
quaintanceship with my uncle, it seemed ex- 
tremely unreasonable. But there it was all the 
same. I put it down to the weather and the 
worry of the last three weeks. For really I had 
had a very trying time. Gerry was more or 
less at the bottom of it, and Crum and my 
own conscience helped largely. The fact was 
that in a moment of weakness I had detailed 
to Gerry the story of the screed and the two 
mysterious coins left by my old buccaneer an- 
cestor. He had fastened upon the thing like a 
dog chewing a meaty bone, and rested not day 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


45 


nor night dinning into me his opinion that my 
bounden duty was to investigate the affair “up 
to the hilt,” as he inappositely remarked. And 
in another astoundingly weak phase of absent- 
mindedness I had taken him with me on one 
of my visits to Crum. The two had managed 
somehow to get on the subject of the mystery, 
and then had started in full cry together to 
browbeat me for my lack of enthusiasm, prov- 
ing — Gerry with terse vulgarity and the lawyer 
with deliberate decorum — that I was throwing 
away the chance of a lifetime, failing in my 
duty to myself, my honor, and my nation, and 
showing forth a pusillanimity and poverty of 
imagination which was a disgrace to the name 
of Dorinecourte. And out of their badgerings 
a wild and hasty promise had ^own — wrung 
from me by pure bullying — that should any 
further news of the ancient scroll of hieroglyph- 
ics come to hand, or perchance the scroll itself, 
I would not fail to do my utmost to obtain 
translation for the same, even to the extent of 
crossing the Atlantic myself and interviewing 
Professor Lessaution. Pondering, therefore, 
this rash mortgaging of my future happiness 
and freedom of movement, I stared down upon 
the snapping little steamboat with melancholy 
eyes, reflecting that she possibly bore to me 
acargo of worry and unrest which would 
shadow my life with unmerited discontent. 

There was the usual fuss when the dripping 
passengers landed, the usual rush for the cus- 
toms, the grating of the rolling-luggage stage. 


46 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


the interchange of impudence between the dock 
porters and the crowd, in fact the everyday 
hurly-burly of a liner’s incoming, and it was 
not till after an hour’s patient toil and the 
signing of various detestable documents, that 
Baines and I were permitted to load our bur- 
den upon the hearse that waited, and get it to 
the railway-station. I had no chance in the 
crowded train of conversing with the man in 
any sort of privacy, so arranged that he should 
call at my rooms that evening, and that there 
he should tell me all there was to tell. For- 
tunately Crum had notified a firm of under- 
takers to meet us at Euston, and there take 
charge of the coffin, and finally I was at liberty 
to make my way home, change, and eat with 
what appetite I could. Then lighting my pipe 
I set myself to await Baines and his revelations 
with all the apathy I could command. 

And then Gerry saw fit to drop in. He was 
brimful of inquiry and investigation regarding 
the day’s doings, and showed unbounded dis- 
appointment that as yet no further develop- 
ments had ensued. He hinted, in fact, that I 
was burking all further knowledge of the sub- 
ject, and sat arguing and discussing like an 
embodied British Association. It was in vain 
that I tacitly agreed to all his premises, and 
passed over his insults. He sat and sat, and 
there he was when Baines arrived, and then I 
knew that the game was fairly up. Under 
Gerry’s encouraging cross-examination I felt 
sure that the worthy valet would have seen 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


47 


and heard marvels which no man could gain- 
say, and would be guided into revelations of 
my uncle’s last words and messages which 
might bear any sort of meaning that Gerry 
chose to apply to them. I groaned as the 
smooth-faced, dapper little chap was ushered in 
by Barker, and Gerry’s face of enthusiastic de- 
light was a picture. 

Baines stood in an uncertain sort of attitude 
near the door, fingering his hat, and waiting, 
after the first good-evening had passed between 
us, for me to speak. I motioned him to sit 
down, and as he deposited himself gingerly on 
the edge of a chair I rose, and straddling across 
the hearthrug, began my interrogation. 

“Well, Baines,’’ said I, “it has been a sad 
time for you. Can you give us any details of 
your master’s illness?’’ 

“It was very short and sudden, my lord,” 
said Baines, with a terseness for which I blessed 
him. “It came on at ’Uanac, where we were 
camped ; ’is lordship went about much as usual 
for the first day ; the second he was very bad, 
and we sent on down to Greytown for a doc- 
tor, but by the next day ’is lordship was 
delirious, and died the day after. The doctor 
came too late. I nursed him all the time, my 
lord,” and Baines’s eyes shone mistily for a 
moment in the candle-light, “and I think all 
was done that could be done, but there was no 
help for it. They tell me these malarial fevers 
always are like that, but ’is lordship was never 
what I should call robust, my lord.” 


48 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

“Do you think he knew that he was dying?” 

I queried, as he paused. “At least, was he 
delirious all the time, or was there an interval 
of consciousness?” I added hopefully. 

“Oh yes, my lord. He was quite calm at the 
last, and knew he was going. I think what 
vexed him most was that he hadn’t finished the 
business he’d come for.” 

“And what was that?” demanded Gerry and 
I as with a single voice. 

Baines looked at Gerry a little uncertainly, 
shuffling his hat between his hands, and glanced 
at me interrogatively before he made answer. 
I understood what he meant, and hastened to 
put him at his ease. 

“You can speak freely before Mr. Carver,” 
said I. “I have no secrets from him.” 

“Well, my lord,” said Baines, with a sort of 
apologetic hesitation, “I cannot think that ’is 
lordship was altogether himself these last two 
or three months. He had possessed himself of a 
piece of paper covered with what you’d call 
‘jommetry’ — at least that’s what I believe it’s 
called, my lord — when we were in Lisbon, and 
for hours together he would pore over this 
when we were going out to Greytown, and 
mutter away to himself in a really most extra- 
ordinary manner. Then when we got to Grey- 
town he wouldn’t stop there a day — and they 
say you should always take a day or two to 
get acclimatized before you go up-country — 
but got mules together and started at once for 
Chichitza 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


49 


“Chichitza?” I exclaimed, remembering Crum’s 
story, “are you quite sure that was the name?” 

“I know it only too well, my lord, consider- 
ing we spent nigh a month there. A horrible 
place too. Uncanny, I called it.” 

“Uncanny. Why?” 

“Oh, it was all shut in with trees, my lord, and 
there was nothing but great ruins all covered 
with figures and carving that looked diabolical 
I thought, even in the day-time, and as for 
night — well, I never dared stir from my tent. 
There was moans and rustlings going on in 
them all the time. ’Is lordship used to say that 
it was only the monkeys and sloths that lodged 
among them, but I didn’t care to go and find 
out. I kept pretty close in camp after dark, I 
can tell you.” 

“And what did my uncle do all the time?” 

“His company and conversation was reserved 
pretty much all the time for the French gentle- 
man we found there,” said Baines, with an air 
of some contempt. “He seemed to find a good 
deal to say to him, my lord. Then when they 
weren’t examining and digging among the 
temples and things, they used to press lumps of 
squashy stuff on the carvings, and pick them 
off when they dried. *Really, my lord, without 
meaning any offence, I think I should have had 
to give notice if we’d stayed there much longer. 
The dulness and the bad food, and one thing 
and another, was too much for any ordinary 
Christian as wasn’t concerned in carvings and 
such like.” 


50 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“When did they give up?’* 

“Just about six days before ’is lordship was 
taken ill. They’d packed up and were going 
down-country to camp a little way — about two 
days’ journey, I think they said — outside Grey- 
town. There they wanted to stay another 
three weeks or month, I understood, to see 
something of the natives. And what there was 
to see, I can’t say at all, my lord. A dirtier, 
horrider set of ruffians I never come across, and 
I’ve been with ’is late lordship in a good many 
countries before now.” 

“What was the cause of the illness, d’you 
think?” I queried. “Bad food? Bad water? 
Anything of that kind?” 

“Just the pure reek and stink of the places, I 
consider,” said Baines impressively. “There 
was a white mist that rose at night which 
fairly got one in the chest, my lord. And up at 
the ruins it was worse than anywhere. I only 
wonder I didn’t go down with it too. Only I 
was more careful at night than ’is lordship.’’ 

“Well, Baines, what did his lordship say 
when he was conscious? Did he send any mes- 
sage to any one, or give any directions?” 

“Yes, my lord,” replied Baines with a promp- 
titude that made Gerry heave in his chair with 
unrestrained excitement, “he sent your lord- 
ship a message which perhaps you’ll under- 
stand, for I must confess I didn’t.” 

It is not advisable to wear your emotions 
upon your sleeve before a servant, and it was a 
stonily indifferent face I turned to Baines and 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


51 


an unquivering voice in which I bade him de- 
liver his word from the dead, but I will own 
that discomfort and nervous expectancy had me 
by the throat. Gerry’s face expressed nothing 
but unstinted and tremulous glee and triumph. 

“ ‘Go and see Captain Dorinecourte,*’ he said, 
‘when you get home, Baines. Mr. Crum will 
have told him why I’m out here. Then say to 
him from me that if he’s worthy of the name he 
bears’ — I’m only repeating it as he said it, my 
lord,” interposed Baines apologetically — “‘that 
he’ll continue with Monsieur Lessaution what 
I’ve begun, and what’s nearly done too,’ he 
added. He was getting weaker all the time, 
my lord, and I don’t think I caught all he said, 
but there was a lot about the alphabet, and the 
ruins at Chichitza, and that the French gentle- 
man had nearly got it all — all of what I don’t 
know, my lord — and things of that kind, when 
I think he must have been wandering, but just 
at the last he sat up on his cot and spoke quite 
loud and clear. ‘After all these generations, 
when I had it in my grasp, it’s gone to Jack. 
It’s the cursedest luck in the world, Baines,’ he 
said, turning to me very wild-like and passion- 
ate, ‘the cursedest luck, and if Jack throws 

away his chance. I’ll — I’ll ’ and then a sort 

of cough or sob took him sudden in the throat, 
and he fell back gasping. I held his head, my 
lord,” went on Baines, his voice getting per- 
ceptibly unsteadier, “but it was no use. He 
turned his eyes to me, and I’m sure he took 
me for some one else, for he smiled so beautiful 


52 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


and glad that it made him look quite different 
and like some other person. His lips moved 
again, but I couldn’t hear any sound. He just 
breathed deep and quiet-like two or three times, 
and then was still, and I’m sure he had no 
pain,” and as he concluded his simple tragedy 
a large tear rolled over the brim of the faithful 
valet’s eye and fell with quite a sparkle on the 
carpet. 

The silence held complete possession of the 
room for a good minute after Baines had fin- 
ished speaking. I ruminated sadly over the 
confirmation and support that would be given 
to the wild theories of Crum and Gerry by this 
unfortunate testimony from the dead. Baines 
was lost in pathetic reminiscence of the end of 
a master whom in his way he had loved, and 
to whom he had given nigh a score of years of 
faithful service; while Gerry a single glance 
showed to be indulging in fantastic dreams of 
triumph which only a certain feeble sense of 
decency prevented him divulging to us on the 
moment. 

“What about Monsieur Lessaution, Baines?” 
I queried to break a silence which was getting 
heavy with foreboding. “Did he stay in Grey- 
town, as he didn’t cross with you?” 

Baines flushed suddenly and looked yet un- 
happier. 

“No, my lord, he went back to Chichitza — at 
least so I understood.” 

“Why?” 

Baines stammered, and fumbled his hat diffi- 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


53 


dently before he answered, striving evidently to 
use chosen words in describing a disagreeable 
incident. At last he burst forth incontinent, 
forbearing circumlocutions. 

*‘He was very impudent to me, my lord— I 
can’t describe it in any other way. He wanted 
to possess himself of one or two of his lord- 
ship’s papers — particularly the one with the 
signs on it, that I’ve spoken of — and was quite 
passionate to me about it. Of course I knew 
my duty, and wouldn’t let him have it, and he 
used dreadful language to me in French — at 
least I’m not a scholar, my lord, but it sounded 
almost devilish. At the end he rounded on me. 
‘Well, pig of pigs,’ he said, ‘take it to England 
then. It but remains for you to bring it back 
when you get there. Tell the new Lord Heath- 
erslie that I await him at Chichitza till Christ- 
mas. After that I shall work on my own 
account,’ and that was all I got out of him 
after that, my lord.” 

There was a gurgle of unrepressed delight 
from Gerry’s corner, followed by a murmur of 
“No getting out of it, my boy.” I quelled him 
with a glance, and proceeded with my interro- 
gation. 

“And that was the last word you had with 
him, Baines?” 

“That was the last word he spoke to me, 
my lord,” answered Baines guiltily. 

I understood. “You should not have an- 
swered a gentleman back,” said I severely. 
“What did you say to him, Baines?” 


54 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

He grew pereeptibly hotter, but answered 
honestly. 

“Well, my lord, I didn’t expect ever to see the 
gentleman again, and he was very outrageous 
about the papers. I only said that you came 
of an obliging family, my lord, and if he meant 
to wait all that time in America, your lord- 
ship was just the man to do as much in Eng- 
land. He didn’t make any answer, my lord, 
but just bit at his knuckles, and went away 
dancing.’’ 

Gerry walked to the window and looked 
gravely into the night. I assumed a sphinx- 
like expression, answering with sedateness. 

“It was an unpardonable reply, Baines,” 
said I sadly, “but it cannot be helped now. I 
must write and apologize to M. Lessaution for 
it. I think that will do for the present, Of 
course I shall continue to pay your wages till 
affairs are settled, and shall probably want to 
see you again more than once. Lodge as near 
as you can. My man will give you a glass of 
wine,” and I rang the bell and delivered him 
into Barker’s hands, the latter’s usual impassiv- 
ity being marred by a bubbling excitement as 
he received this travelled confrere, who might 
be expected to entertain him with astounding 
histories of adventure by flood and field. 

“A peculiarly pleasant gentleman, Mr. Baines,” 
said Gerry, turning pink-complexioned from 
the window as the door closed. “So versa- 
tile and gifted in the lighter arts of conversa- 
tion and repartee. Now, old chap, do you re- 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


55 


alize that you’ve got to go through with this 
thing? Not only is it proved beyond a doubt 
that there is something to be looked into, but 
it appears more than likely that the investiga- 
tion thereof may beeome amusing. What more 
could any reasonable person desire? We’re both 
of us down in the mouth, and require relaxa- 
tion and a tonic for diseased minds. Here is 
an unexampled chance ready to our hands. 
Apply, therefore, for leave; run over to Chi- 
chitza, and interview the good Lessaution be- 
fore he is tired of waiting. And I tell you what 
I’ll do — I’ll come and look after you.” 

“You overwhelm me with your considera- 
tion,” I sneered, “I can’t possibly permit my- 
self to trespass on your kindness.” 

“Don’t trouble yourself to be sarcastic, old 
man,” said Gerry composedly. “If you desire 
it. I’ll openly avow that I’m crazy to go and 
forget all the brooding and whining of the last 
month, and therefore I mean to make your life 
a burden till you consent. That’s all for to- 
night; but to-morrow we’ll go and see Crum 
again, and hear what he has to say. So good- 
night, old man.” 

I suffered myself to be led an unwilling cap- 
tive to Crum’s office the next day, and the old 
man heard our version of Baines’s story pa- 
tiently. And thus he made answer, speaking 
didactically. 

“I must say,” said he, leaning forward and 
tapping the points of his fingers ceaselessly to- 
gether, “that what Baines has to tell us seems 


5G BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

to me to be most conclusive that your uncle, 
in conjunction with M. Lessaution, has lighted 
on some further clue to this mysterious docu- 
ment. Though apparently they have not 
solved it in its entirety, they have satisfied 
themselves that it is Mayan in character, and 
has some bearing on the adventure described 
by Sir John Dorinecourte. The French gentle- 
man evidently has accumulated knowledge 
which makes him the only authority on this 
subject, and it is to him you must address 
yourself if you would go further in the mat- 
ter. I think, my lord, that you would very 
possibly find it interesting so to do, but it 
rests with you. It is regrettable that M. Les- 
saution is not returning to Europe at once, and 
that he remains at Chichitza. It is also evi- 
dent that he has — or thinks he has— informa- 
tion which may rnake him independent of you 
in this question, or, on the other hand, his 
threat of working without you may be merely 
a piece of bluff to induce you to go and inter- 
view him. In conclusion, I must say, that all 
things considered, it is the only course I see 
open to you, my lord, if, as I say, you think the 
matter of sufficient interest to be inquired into.” 

“And of that there is no possible, probable 
doubt, no shadow of doubt whatever,” inter- 
posed Gerry. “But don’t you think we should 
have a look at the thing which has been at 
the bottom of all the excitement? It’s among 
the boxes which have been deposited here, Mr. 
Crum.” 


WHAT BAINES KNEW 


57 


Crum smiled. “I have so far expected this 
visit, that I made bold — in my character of ex- 
ecutor — to open your late uncle’s dispatch-box, 
which was deposited here last night. I have 
found the thing in question, and, speaking for 
myself, am of the opinion that there can be no 
question but that the coins and the document 
are in the same symbol,” and opening his writ- 
ing-table drawer he produced a tin case. Out 
of it he took a sheet of yellow, rough-looking 
material wrapped in tissue paper. He spread 
it out before us. 

It was mouldering and musty, and emitted 
a faint, incense-like odour of perfumed wax. 
It was covered, as Baines had described, with 
“geometry” of sorts, namely squares, and ob- 
longs twisted and welded together with in- 
tricacy, but with apparent method. The long 
lines of them ran across it in ordered rows 
from top to bottom, though which was the 
beginning, it would have been hard to say, 
except that at the end appeared a drawing — 
the presentment of as diabolical a looking mon- 
ster as I have ever seen. It was of the nature 
of a huge lizard, with a long, sinuous neck 
doubled into terrifying contortions and flung 
back upon its thick and lumpish body. The 
lines which radiated from its eye evidently rep- 
resented the baleful glare which was supposed 
to proceed from that organ. But it was por- 
trayed with a rough skill which was more or 
less admirable. 

“Well,” said I after a pause, when we had 


58 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL - 


ceased to gape upon this absurdity, “I think 
you are driving me into an escapade worthy of 
the worst kind of lunatic, but as you are all 
against me I give in. We sail for Chichitza, 
but while I say it, I am calling myself fool, 
fool, and again fool, and there is no other 
word to characterize every one of us.” 

And so amid Gerry’s shouts of acclamation 
was set on foot that outrageous adventure 
which brought us to the Great South Wall. 


CHAPTER V 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 

It was a hot, damp, oppressive October even- 
ing when our little coasting steamer deposited 
us at Greytown, whither we had come after 
being landed by the Pacific Mail at Colon. 
Gerry and I fought our way ashore amid the 
crowd of niggers and half-castes of var3ring 
degree, while the melancholy Baines brought 
up the rear, eyeing doubtfully the all too easy 
porterage afforded our baggage by the long- 
shore loafers who had annexed it tumultuously. 

Baines had accompanied us under strong com- 
pulsion, and only by the promise of a stipend 
that many a weary curate would have deemed 
beyond the dreams of avarice. When the point 
was mooted — and we felt that his experience 
was a thing worth struggling for — he had met 
our proposals with a flat refusal. He had ex- 
plained emphatically that he had already had 
sufficient, for one life at least, of irruptions into 
the tangle of primeval forests where the dark 
green abyss of jungle made twilight eternally. 
Where, as he forcibly expressed it, the crawling 
beasts of peculiar noisomeness were thick as 
flies upon a butcher’s stall; where the water 
was soup and the soup water ; where the grey 


60 BfiYOND I'HE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

mists of malaria enveloped one as with a 
blanket of ague germs. All these things, as I 
say, were contrary to him. But the financial 
allurements held out to him, and the magic of 
Gerry’s silver tongue had prevailed, and now he 
conducted us personally, though lugubriously. 
He it was who hustled a way eventually for us 
to the wretched inn, and set himself to prepare 
our morrow’s transport. 

Nothing, we ascertained, had been seen or 
heard of M. Lessaution, and it was therefore to 
be supposed that he was still encamped amid 
the ruins of Chichitza. By noon the next day 
we had accumulated our carriers, and set forth 
a half-day’s stage in that direction before even- 
ing, full of excitement in our quest, and of hopes 
of adventure in the attaining of it. For now 
that we found ourselves in these tropic wilds, 
visions of encounters with savage man and 
beast loomed largely before our mind’s eye. 

A greater disappointment than the reality I 
have seldom, if ever, had to undergo. Instead 
of varied and delightful travel, enlivened by 
brilliant experiences of peril at the hands of the 
aborigines, or the claws of the forest denizens, 
the advance was simply one long, perpetual 
grind. Eternally we hewed our devious way 
through the thickest brush which exists, as I 
believe, on this earth. Every moment of the 
day and night were we devoured by mosquitoes 
and other noxious beasts, including “jiggers,” 
which lamed us both for the best part of a week. 
Nothing did we eat save cassava bread and the 


4 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 61 

perpetual monkey and porcupine steak, and 
over every portion of our bodies were wecov-v 
ered with enormous tropical boils, by reason of 
which we rested not day nor night. So in 
stupendous misery did we proceed to Chichitza, 

< seeing neither man nor beast of the slightest 
import during the whole ten days we spent in 
the transit. 

Well do I remember our arrival at the ruins. 
The last few miles we had stumbled on a faint 
track among the creeping lianas and spiky 
aloes, and Gerry and I, hearing that the end of 
our quest was only a matter of an hour or 
two, had begun to head the party with some 
small show of elan. Thus as we strode hope- 
fully through the endless gloom, we saw a ray 
of blessed sunlight flicker down between the 
masses of dense foliage about a quarter of a 
mile ahead, and yelled with pure delight at the 
sight, the monkeys and parrots answering back 
defiantly. Then we took to our heels and ran 
like lamplighters down the aisles of rotting logs 
that lay between us and the gladsome shaft of 
brightness, shouting uproariously. 

Still sprinting we emerged suddenly into 
an encampment where white civilized tents 
gleamed in the noon-day sun — oh, the loveliness 
of open skies — and tripped with startled outcry 
upon their pegs, rolling at the feet of a little 
wan, wizened, black-bearded man, who stared 
down upon us with timorous amazement. 

It did not take his invocation of the sacred 
name of a pig to convince me that we had in 

• 


62 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

very truth stumbled upon our man. I rose and 
bowed to him with dignity. 

“I believe,” said I in French, “that I have the 
honour to address M. le Professeur Lessaution? 
Allow me to introduce m3^self as Lord Heather- 
slie, and this gentleman as Mr. Gerald Carver, 
other Majesty’s Regiment of Foot Guards.” 

He flung up his arms ecstatically. “But 
what a joy!” he shrieked in his native tongue. 
“Monsieur has not failed me. But I convinced 
myself that a gentleman of monsieur’s blood 
would not. I said no, it is not possible that 
any Englishman with his native love of ad- 
venture will forsake this so great quest. Mon- 
sieur, I have the honor to embrace you with all 
my heart,” and he’d have done it too, not only 
with his heart, but with his lean little arms, if 
I had not dexterously caught his tempestuous 
hands and wrung them with an eflusion that 
left him too exhausted for more familiar dem- 
onstrations. 

When Gerry had also evaded the luscious 
raptures that the good little man in the fulness 
of his soul would have inflicted on him also, 
and the ingenuous abandon had somewhat sub- 
sided, we proceeded to explain ourselves, detail- 
ing under what circumstances we had received 
his message, how we had been affected thereby, 
and how our purpose to visit him had grown 
into fulfilment. Then tremblingly he demanded 
if we had with us the original document, and 
satisfied about this by its exhibition beneath 
his sparkling eyes, turned to evolve an enter- 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 63 

tainment worthy of the occasion. Meanwhile 
we sought changes of raiment — by this time our 
carriers had overtaken us — baths, and such- 
like luxuries which we had been without for 
ten long and weary days. 

As we emerged again into the sunlight— and 
how we revelled in it, hot as it was— we found 
our host in the full ardour of hospitality. He 
was dashing about from tent to tent, cuffing 
relentlessly those of his servants who failed 
exactly to meet his behests, personally super- 
intending the cook, and flitting from saucepan 
to saucepan with strange bottles and jars of 
piquancies like a very cordon-bleu. The result, 
when we sat ourselves down before it half-an- 
hour later, was in every way a success. 

Finally, as the coflee circulated in choice little 
cups, and pipes and cigars were lit, and con- 
tentment sat upon every brow, the little chap 
proceeded to open the conference, speaking as 
one who conducted a very rite, rather than a 
mere discussion. 

“In the first place,” said the little man, speak- 
ing in French, “I have to ask your pardon, 
M. de Heatherslie, for the attempt I made to 
deprive your uncle’s servant, the good Baines, 
of the .contents of the dispatch-box with which 
he charged himself so rigorously. My action 
was inexcusable, I admit. But, on the other 
hand, put yourself in my place. Look you that 
your uncle and I together had toiled months — 
weeks, at the least— to elucidate the symbol of 
this document— this so ancient document in 


64 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


which many things of the most curious may be 
recorded. And understand also that we are 
very near the conclusion of the matter. At 
this precise moment Monsieur Baines takes 
from beneath my eyes the prize for which I 
have toiled so laboriously. Do you not im- 
agine, therefore, that I feel a distress that is 
cruel — that I bemoan his obstinacy — that I en- 
deavour by any means to alter his decision? 
Tell me this, and at the same time accord me 
your forgiveness for my hastiness.” 

“I think,” said I, beaming upon him benig- 
nantly, “that you must have exercised great 
restraint, my dear Monsieur Lessaution, in re- 
fraining from destroying him and rifling his 
body. Let us forget this absurd incident. 
Happily we have returned to you the means of 
doing so. Here is the paper, and here are we, 
boiling over with curiosity to get a transla- 
tion. Are you now in a position to give it?” 

He bowed impressively, his soft little brown 
eyes gleaming gratefully at me from behind his 
spectacles. Then he continued his discourse. 

“It may have come to your ears, my friends, 
that I have for some time convinced myself 
that the interpretation of the Mayan cabalis- 
tics, wliich you see here graven upon these 
mighty ruins” — and he waved his arms sol- 
emnly towards the grey walls that showed 
dimly through the foliage — “is to be found by 
comparing them with the ancient Egyptian 
symbol. This I have now proved beyond a 
doubt to be correct. But this being so, only 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 65 

half the battle is won. I arrive at the language 
spoken some centuries ago by the inhabitants 
of the Mayan Empire. To translate this lan- 
guage I must find its connecting link with the 
Mayan of the present day — and this is but a 
bastard patois of the original, being corrupted 
with Indian. But by familiarizing myself with 
Mayan, as the people of the country speak it 
to-day, I have made long strides in solving the 
twisted carvings of these ancient monuments. 
It was at the point where your late uncle and 
I had decided that some knowledge of collo- 
quial Mayan was necessary to further our plans 
that he unfortunately contracted the illness 
which proved fatal to him. During the last 
two months I have familiarized myself with 
this language. I say it with due humility, but 
I believe with some certainty that in the course 
of a short time I shall decipher the document. 
But supposing this done, shall you be guided 
by the result?” 

“That’s just a little too previous a question,” 
said I. “Don’t you think you had better get 
the answer to the Mayan conundrum before 
you embarrass us with plans which have as yet 
no basis to start from?” 

“But surely you have seen the letter of your 
great ancestor, who was the original discoverer 
of this document? Naturally the translation 
will show us where to seek this lost people.” 

He was so serious about it, not to say so 
cock-sure, that I nearl}" imperilled our friend- 
ship by laughing in his face. To my stolid 


66 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

British mind, the conclusive way in which he 
took my romancing old ancestor’s yarn as gos- 
pel truth struck me as humorous. But I pre- 
served a staid demeanor as I answered. 

* ‘Let me assure you, monsieur,” said I, “that 
I shall feel it my duty to be guided in this 
matter by your advice. But before we discuss 
hypothetical questions, let us endeavour to deal 
with facts. Take then this paper and apply to 
it your knowledge. I have great pleasure in 
handing it over to your care.” 

It might have been an insignia of knighthood 
at the least, judging by the reverence with 
which he received the musty relic. In a very 
fury of grateful protestation he bore it to his 
tent and surrounded himself with a mass of 
papers, books, and references. And there 
through the live-long day he continued to sit 
amid his piled accumulations of literary matter. 
The door of his tent was ever open, and our 
view of his actions unimpeded. Fatigued by 
the stress of ten days’ marching, Gerry and I 
were only too glad to rest beneath the shade of 
a great granadillo tree and smoke the pipe of 
peace, and the sight of the little man’s energy 
was a restful tonic to our jaded constitutions. 
He flung himself upon his task like a navvy. 
From book to book he flew, and from note to 
note. He dodged about from one heap of man- 
uscript to another like a little robin picking 
crumbs in the snow. He jerked his little head 
from side to side as he annotated and compared 
with the eager, intelligent air of a fox-terrier 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 


67 


before a rabbit-hole. He sweated, he tore his 
hair, he seized his head between his hands in a 
very travail of mental effort. The sheets of 
foolscap flew beneath the touch of his practised 
fingers. Symbol after symbol gave up its secret 
as he travelled down the lines of interwoven 
cabalistics. The copper-plate of his translation 
grew in volume steadily; the pace increased 
rapidly as he neared the end. Not a word did 
we offer, not a suggestion did we make. 
Apathetically we listened to his curses or smiled 
at his squeals of triumph as the figures alter- 
nately obstructed or fell before him. Finally, as 
the tropic night closed in with the swiftness of 
a curtain’s dropping, he gave a yell of frantic 
joy and bounded out of his lair, waving the 
completed copy with terrific gesticulation. He 
thrust it into my hand, still shouting. 

“Aha, aha! it is done, it is complete. I have 
them, the great race of Maya. Before the 
world we shall present them. We shall say. 
Behold the glories of so long ago, and to us 
will be the honour — the so great honor of the 
discovery. Read, then, read, and say if I have 
not succeeded,’’ and with his eyes aflame he 
hovered round me, waving his ten fingers 
ecstatically. 

Here is what I found writ down in artistic 
French, and render into my own bald native 
tongue : 


68 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“From Huanhac, leader of the migration of the 
people of Cay, greeting to Camazmag, 
priest of Cay and overlord of the people 
who remain in the land of Mayax. 

“This to inform you that to the people of the 
migration is come prosperity and great honour, 
for indeed we have found the habitation of the 
god Cay himself. For having put out into the 
deep after our departure, behold a great tem- 
pest arose swiftly bearing us south, and for the 
space of fifteen days we saw naught but water 
and a sky of doom. On the sixteenth day, 
when both water and victual were vanished 
from among us, we came to regions of much 
ice — ice in comparison with which that upon 
the mountains of the Northland is as naught, 
at the which were we dismayed, expecting death 
by cold and hunger, but the purpose of the god 
was upon us. For as we drifted through the 
lanes of ice, a great wall rose before us, high 
and implacable, nor could we anywhere per- 
ceive a break therein. So for some hours we 
were tossed by changing currents, fearing in- 
stant destruction against the frowning crags. 
Then of a sudden Carfag, of the tribe of Xiba- 
lab, being in the leading ship, called aloud, 
saying that round a jutting peak of rock before 
him a bay was opening, which passage was 
exceeding intricate, and might pass unnoticed. 
So following Carfag we rounded the cape and 
found still water and a sandy sloping beach. 
There we landed amidst a crowd of sitting sea- 
birds and sea-beasts of surprising magnitude, 


PROPEvSSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 69 

the which were not scaled as fish, but furred as 
foxes. Yet all was rock and pebbles, nor had 
we^means to light a fire, save with such lumber 
from the ships as we could spare. 

“But as we wandered further up the fore- 
shore, there ran ridge-like across the face of 
rock a line of black stone having the similitude 
of wood, and with the marks of ferns therein. 
This some of us knew would burn, having seen 
the like in the Northland. 

“Then lit we fires, and smote over unresisting 
some of the great birds which without fear sat 
upon the sand, and roasted them to make a 
meal therefrom. As the fume of their roasting 
went up savorily upon the air, and all prepared 
to satisfy their hunger, behold one lifted up his 
eyes towards the land and cried aloud in awe 
and great terror, for thence came down towards 
us the god Cay himself in flesh apparent, his 
mouth agape as if demanding sacrifice. Then 
consulted we hurriedly upon the honor which 
had thus befallen us of the migration— shown 
now of a surety to be in direct favor of the 
god — and selecting Alfa, daughter of Halmac, as 
fairest, bound her for sacrifice. Her we thrust 
forth into the path of the god, though Hardal, 
to whom the maid was promised, would have 
stayed us. Then came Cay in his bodily shape, 
and did take the maid, and did eat her in token 
of blessing and acceptance to us his faithful 
people, and Hardal, seeing his bride rent and 
dismembered, ran forth to the feet of the god, 
and was himself devoured also. After which 


70 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WAI.L 

did Cay withdraw himself from our reverent 
and astonished eyes, and we gave thanks that 
he in his mercy had guided us to his own 
abode, though verily the land is passing savage 
and barren of every growing thing. 

“So we hasted and collected of our stores and 
put them on our best ship, and have sent unto 
you Migdal and six of our bravest youth, that 
you too may come to the land which Cay him- 
self hath deigned to bless. In witness whereof 
hereunto I subscribe the sign of the god, fer- 
vently desiring that to you may be given 
his protection until you also come to his own 
seat. 

“Huanhac, priest of Cay, and chief 
of the migration.” 

I handed the paper on to Gerry without a 
word of comment, and then turned to Lessau- 
tion with questioning eyes. He was sitting 
opposite me chuckling and bubbling away in an 
indescribable manner. He beat his little hands 
together, digging at the soft earth with his 
restless heels while Gerry also digested this 
astounding rigmarole, evidently bursting with 
the desire to speak, but restraining himself till 
he could spring his fatuous surprises upon us 
both together. For the next five minutes he 
made the most hideous and unconscious faces 
at me, winking and smirking meaningly as he 
caught the emotions flitting swiftly across 
Gerry’s features, and finally, as the latter laid 
down the paper with a low whistle of astonish- 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION'S OPINION 71 

ment and incredulity, he poured forth his 
abounding triumph boisterously. 

“You see, my friends, you see?” he shouted. 
“It is as plain — but yes — as plain as the great 
temple behind you. You have heard, you have 
read of the great wall of the unknown lands of 
the Antarctic? You have remembered what M. 
Borchgrevink has told? Of the great cliff that 
stands up unclimbable from the ocean? There 
they have gone. It is there they have founded 
their new empire in the land that no man has 
discovered. It is all in one with the letter of 
the good Sir Dorinecourte of long ago. Where 
but there could it be? Where is the ice? Where 
else the great cliffs? We will go to them. We 
will discover them again. To the world we will 
present this ancient race, and to us will be a 
glory that we cannot as yet dream of. We 
shall be the great ones of the century. The 
discoverers of the peoples of yesterday. What 
do you say? Hein? Hein? Hein?” and he 
grunted like an inquiring pig. 

“My dear Professor,” said I patiently, “you 
don’t really mean to imply that you believe 
that this race exists to the present day? Why, 
they’ve perished long ago by cold and hunger; 
or been eaten by their god. I must say that I 
think I may safely take this document to be — 
let us say — an allegory, written by some menda- 
cious old priest for wicked purposes of his own. 
The story of the god Cay is quite sufficient to 
show the absurdity of it. How on earth could 
such a monstrous impossibility have ever 


72 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

walked the earth either in the Antarctic or 
anywhere else?” 

“My friend, my friend,” he babbled, his words 
nearly tripping over each other in his hurry, 
“it is not so; I assure you of it. Let us even 
allow that the race is dead. But the remains 
of the wonderful people exist. We can go, we 
can dig, we can find the traces. And remember 
the gold. We go not for honor alone — though 
for me, I am French, and it is enough — but 
there will be the gold. Think of the very bal- 
ing-vessels made of gold in the letter of the 
great Sir Dorinecourte. There will be wealth, 
and the fame — oh, the very great, magnificent 
fame.” 

I tried to be tolerant with the enthusiastic 
little ass, but I will own that his credulity was 
altogether too much for me. 

“You have not yet answered my question 
about the god Cay,” I replied. “How do you 
propose to explain that very obvious false- 
hood?” 

“And you think all this is a lie,” he bawled, 
“just because this priest wove a little religion 
into his message? And who are we to say that 
it is not true? Have we been behind that wall 
of rock where these people remain either alive 
or dead? How then can we decide what is 
there or has been there? It will be time enough 
to say what exists or does not exist when we 
have made examination.” 

Now did one ever hear such nonsense? There 
may be a queer thing or two loose about the 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 


73 


earth, but to ask one to believe that a terror 
such as that depicted at the foot of the Mayan 
scroll was alive and being worshipped not 
much more than three centuries ago was a trifle 
too much. I said so with no uncertain sound. 

“M. de Heatherslie,” answered the little man 
gravely, “you speak of what you do not know. 
What is that your poet says? There are more 
things in heaven and earth than your poor lit- 
tle philosophy thinks of. Why, tell me, are you 
convinced that such a monster cannot have 
existed? You but repeat what the ignorant 
said to M. de Chaillu about the gorilla.” 

“Humbug,” said I, getting warm. “Monkeys 
there always have been, and monkeys there 
always will be. If this monster was like any- 
thing that nature ever invented there might 
possibly be something in it. But it’s a thing 
utterly outrageous. Who ever saw a hippo- 
potamus with the neck of a giraflfe and the legs 
of a lizard? and that is practically what the 
mythological god Cay is, both on the scroll 
and on the ruins here,” for we had found more 
reoresentations of the loathsome divinity stud- 
ded into the twisted inscriptions on the facades 
and walls of the temples. 

As the discussion grew he began to light up 
as well. “Monsieur,” he squealed, with glow- 
ing eyes, “I endeavor to say it with courtesy, 
but you are ignorant and obstinate. You have 
slept away your life in the fogs of England; 
you think that there is nothing worth consider- 
ing in the world that has not the cachet of 


74 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

Piccadilly. I tell you — I affirm to you — that I 
believe that far away in the unknown South 
much may have happened — much may still be 
happening. We are ignorant, you and I, but 
there is no reason that we should not learn. I 
have translated to you this document. I give 
to you my opinions on it. I say that it should 
be investigated, and to your family is due the 
first chance of investigation, if only out of re- 
spect to the honour of your uncle, who is unfor- 
tunately dead. But if you throw away this 
chance, then I claim the right to give this honor 
to France — my country. But I beg you to 
remember that I beseech you to make use of 
your knowledge first, that afterwards there 
may be no recriminations.” 

I bowed sneeringly. “You do me too much 
honor,” I replied sarcastically, “for I can im- 
agine that every savant in France is yearning 
to stand in my shoes. Why, heavens, man! do 
you think there’s a fool big enough to back 
you anywhere between Dunkirk and Mar- 
seilles?” 

He glowered at me malignantly, flapping his 
hands against the turf “Monsieur wishes me 
to infer then that I am a fool?” he queried 
coldly. “I accept monsieur’s compliment in the 
spirit in which it is dealt to me. But let me 
tell monsieur this. He may have the wealth, 
he may have the courage, he may think he has 
the wisdom of the century at his back, but he 
has no spirituality, and, I say it with assur- 
ance, but little intellectuality. He is crusted in 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 75 

conservative unbelief like an oyster in his shell. 
With all his practical qualities I pity him,” and 
he swept his hands abroad with a wave of dis- 
dain that was dramatic in its haughtiness. 

You will perceive that the makings of a good 
quarrel were here, however absurd the subject. 
A sentence or two more and I and the little 
ass would have been, figuratively, at each 
other’s throats. Here Gerry stepped into the 
breach. 

“Jack, you’re in the wrong; and what’s more, 
when you’re cool, you’ll own it. What’s the 
good of looking black at another gentleman 
simply because he differs from you in a matter 
of opinion? The remedy lies in your own 
hands. M. Lessaution tells you that if you 
sail in a certain direction he has good reason 
to believe that you will find certain things, or 
the remains of certain things, which he judges 
to be of importance. Well, sail there. We’ve 
a very great desire for something exciting to do 
just at present, and here you have an ancient 
family quest ready to your hand. I can’t im- 
agine anything that could possibly improve 
upon such a. providentially given chance. 
You’ve got the money for it, and the health, 
and last, but not least, you’ve got two com- 
panions ready to accompany you. If you’ve 
any spirit left in you, ^o,” and as he concluded 
his lecture he smote me resoundingly on the 
back. 

I failed to see sense in this any more than in 
the Frenchman’s hare-brained purposes, but a 


76 BEYOND THE GREAT vSOUTH WALL 

sudden thought had come with glowing swift- 
ness into my mind. I turned hastily to Lessau- 
tion, who was regarding me with anxious in- 
quiry, and asked him a question. 

“Supposing,” said I, “only supposing, we 
were to sail due south to the land which you 
believe to exist beyond Cape Horn, how should 
we proceed?” 

“We should of course make the Falkland 
Islands our base, and steer a directly southern 
course from there. They would be the nearest 
inhabited land.” 

I pondered this information silently, ruminat- 
ing various matters in my mind. Finally I 
turned benignantly towards the Professor, and 
seized his hand. 

“Monsieur Lessaution,” said I, “I will say 
frankly that I do not believe that we shall 
find a vestige of this extinct race, and I am 
inclined to think that both the English letter 
and the Mayan document are frauds. But I 
want relaxation and excitement, and I believe 
the cruise may possibly do me all the good in 
the world. We will return to England and find 
out the cost of equipping a yacht for sailing 
in these latitudes. If my man of business ad- 
vises me that I am in a position to undertake 
it, I shall do so. And I request the pleasure of 
your company if this proposal becomes an 
accomplished fact.” 

His sallow little cheeks flushed up with pleas- 
ure, and he shook my proffered hand violently. 

“I was not mistaken in you, Monsieur de 


PROFESSOR LESSAUTION’S OPINION 


77 


Heatherslie,” he said, with dignity. “I felt that 
no man of your adventurous race would fail at 
a chance like this. Receive my congratulations 
on your decision, and my regrets that I used 
unpardonable adjectives to goad you into it. 
You will find me, I trust, not unworthy of the 
honour you have done me.” 

Gerry used less set terms in his address. 
“Thanks, old man,” he remarked complacently; 
“I should like to come, though you haven’t 
asked me. And now all’s settled peacefully, 
let’s have a drink,” and he headed the proces- 
sion which advanced with much unanimity 
upon the dining tent. 

But I felt a hypocrite and a pretender. For 
what had influenced my decision was simply a 
sentence culled from the published itinerary of 
the s.s. Madagascar's winter’s cruise. And it 
ran thus-- 

“On or about February 6, Port Lewis in the 
Falkland Isles, previous to her return home.” 


CHAPTER VI 
WE SAIL SOUTH 

It was the end of October before we were 
back in London again, and had begun our 
preparations for the expedition to which I had 
pledged myself. Crum gave me no financial 
excuse for departing from my promise. In his 
management things had looked up during my 
uncle’s tenure of the title, and I was a deal 
better off than I had believed possible. Farms 
were in good condition and well let. Bog and 
heather in Ireland had found tenants for shoot- 
ing, if not for grazing. Investments of accumu- 
lations had prospered marvellously. And above 
all was the wonderful collection of coins which 
was to be sold as soon as it could be accu- 
rately catalogued. I was well to do, it seemed, 
when all I had expected was a bare escape from 
penury. 

“Your lordship need have no fear of lack of 
funds,” said the old man, as he finished listen- 
ing to the tale which I had to tell on our re- 
turn from America. “The twentieth part of 
what the collection will fetch in the open mar- 
ket will be ample to meet every expense. And 
if your lordship will permit . me, I should be 
glad to help you in your choice of a ship. 
This is no case for a mere yacht.” 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


79 


“You, Mr. Crum!” I questioned amazedly, 
“pardon my surprise; but the practice of the 
law does not as usual induce experience in ship- 
rigging or building.” 

“No,” said the old fellow meekly, “not as a 
rule. But in this particular instance it has been 
one old lawyer’s hobby. My pleasure all m3^ 
life has been yachting, my lord, and I have 
many friends who go down to the sea in ships.” 

This was a bolt from the blue and no mis- 
take, and a blessing which I was not slow to 
avail myself of. I gave Crurri a free hand with 
the greatest delight, and the result was in ever^- 
way admirable. Not only did he bring to his 
task a wealth of finicky little details such as 
are dear to the yachtsman’s heart, but took to 
him retired master mariners and other sea-go- 
ing veterans of his acquaintance, who possessed 
more than his amateur capacity for judging 
good lines and fittings. And thus did they 
bring their kindly toil to a conclusion. 

The Racoon^ formerly of the American whal- 
ing trade, barque built, and with stout timbers 
and bulkheads to resist ice, was for sale. With 
cautious advances Crum became her purchaser. 
She was of five hundred tons burden, had an 
auxiliary screw with one hundred and eighty 
indicated horse-power, and was reputed a first- 
class sea-boat. We had the greasy try-works 
swept from her decks, and a skylight fixed 
therein, which gave light to a spacious saloon 
partitioned out of the barrel deck below. Aft 
this we fashioned a cosy smoke-room, round 


80 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


which were four cabins for ourselves and the 
captain. Other cabins below the main-deck 
housed the mates and the engineer, while for- 
ward the crew and stokers had the best of 
quarters. We took aboard much provision, 
supplied us by a famous firm of caterers, to- 
gether with liquid in due proportion. Coal we 
took a large stock of ; not that we expected to 
steam more than we could help, but we wished 
to be independent of coaling stations. Mr. 
Waller of the R.N.R. and the merchant marine 
came with many certificates of various sorts to 
be our captain, and Mr. Janson of the same 
service to be his second in command. Mr. 
Rafferty, sometime of Cork City, was boat- 
swain, and the engineer, stokers, and deck- 
hands were all British; the first whole-colored, 
single-tongued crew that Waller had ever com- 
manded, as he feelingly remarked. 

Under these favorable auspices we sailed 
from Southampton on November 22nd, and 
thus the adventure to the Great South Wall 
was fairly started. 

I am not going to give you the wearisome 
repetitions which my log shows as indications 
of what monotonous things we did during the 
next six weeks. We had the usual toss as we 
threshed our way across the Bay, we took the 
usual pleasure in sighting the Canaries and 
Madeira, and we shipped the usual turtle at 
Ascension. After the fogs we had left in Eng- 
land, we found the eternal heat of the line bear- 
able for about six hours, and then cursed it 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


81 


with the usual malevolence after experiencing it 
for six hours more. We got very much bored 
with each other’s company, and found conver- 
sation languish after the first week. We got 
huffy with one another more than once, and 
finally settled down to the voyage, shaking, 
each of us, into his allotted place automatically. 
And we grew fat and bilious. 

Lessaution was by far the most energetic. 
His curiosity was abnormal, and he left no 
inquiry unmade that would tend to satisfy it. 
He was as sick as it is possible for a full- 
bodied Frenchman to be sick for the first three 
or four days, and after that seemed to renew 
his youth. Not that he was by any means 
daunted during the period named. He crawled 
about the deck in paroxysms of the most ter- 
rible description, interrupting the crew with 
queries on every and any conceivable subject; 
he attempted to mount the bridge, and was 
hurled back disconsolate as a green sea thun- 
dered aboard ; he ventured into the cook’s de- 
partment and endeavored to complete that 
worthy’s education during the height of a gale ; 
finally he was rescued from imminent death on 
the bed-plates of the engine-room, where he was 
explaining the superiority of French boilers to 
the contemptuous chief, Eccles. When the 
winds and the sea had calmed down, he pro- 
ceeded to bring out his gear which he had ac- 
cumulated for the adventure, and overhaul it 
with pardonable pride. 

He had certainly not forgotten anything that 
0 


82 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


was likely to be of any possible use. Ice-axes 
there were in profusion. Climbing-irons, port- 
able ladders, ropes, chisels. These to be used 
in the attack upon the precipice of rock or ice 
which he convinced himself would lie between 
us and our desire. He had also provided for 
further feats when the first difficulties had been 
surmounted. Toboggans or sleds he had two 
or three of; no less than six pairs of snow- 
shoes, and, wonder of wonders, a pair of 
skates ! 

He explained when taken to task on the sub- 
ject that he belonged to that gathering of the 
elect the Cercle des Patineurs, though as yet 
he had not attained the style which he desired 
to affect, and was in consequence unable to cut 
the figure he would like in the beau monde. 
Now he thought an opportunity of instructing 
himself in this health-giving and aristocratic 
pursuit would be afforded him. He would be 
able to win the plaudits of all on his return, 
for, let us mark, he had brought with him a 
book of self-instruction on the subject, and 
would perfect himself in intricacies unbeliev- 
able. Yes, it would not do to spend the whole 
of the time on industry; we must not let our 
search deprive us of all thoughts of relaxa- 
tion. At times he would unbend — he would 
sport. As an exercise this skating, let us re- 
member, was without a peer. 

Careless of our rude pleasantries, he proceeded 
to unveil further treasures. He had a perfect 
armory of offensive and defensive weapons. 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


83 


Bowie-knives were sown throughout his bag- 
gage like plums in a pudding. Revolvers dec- 
orated his cabin walls in pairs. A rifle flanked 
a shot-gun on each side of his cot. A toma- 
hawk was precariously affixed to the deck 
above, whence it fell perilously every time we 
broached to between the great Atlantic surges. 
It was evident he was prepared for the worst 
that the future might have in store. 

We rallied him gently on his warlike prepara- 
tions, but he met us with logical arguments. 
It was understood, was it not, that we went 
to discover a new people. Let the memory of 
the old conquistadores be in our hearts. By 
the magic of their perfected weapons they had 
prevailed upon the ancestors of this very peo- 
ple we went to seek, and from them we might 
learn a lesson. It was not to be expected that 
we should be greeted peacefully at first. A dis- 
play of force — only a display, let us certainly 
hope — would be necessary. He, Emil Saiger 
Lessaution, would give that display, and in- 
augurate a reconstruction of their mediaeval 
empire. Met by a dispute of his data, in that 
we refused to acknowledge the possibility of 
any such race surviving in the desolation of 
the Antarctic, he turned our flank by remark- 
ing happily, that at any rate animals of a 
ferocious disposition would abound, and would 
need to be captured or quelled. He promised 
himself many trophies of fur and feather, which 
would make the eyes of members of the shoot- 
ing club he patronized bulge out with envy. 


84 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

Gerry had brought a pair of guns and a rifle, 
with some vague idea of sealing, and found 
encouragement therein from Mr. Rafferty, who 
had sailed in whalers. I gave it to be under- 
stood, however, that I did not purpose wasting 
time in the chase, and should not allow us to 
stay our course short of our destination. One 
circumstance, however, came to light, which 
turned the laugh strongly against the French- 
man. It was while he was examining with a 
depreciatory air Gerry’s guns, that it suddenly 
occurred to him that with all his store of weap- 
ons, he had no means of loading them. In the 
excitement of departure he had left all such 
practicalities as cartridges to the last, being 
filled with the loftiest ideas for using them. 
The consequence was that he was absolutely 
dependent on Gerry’s slender store, and Gerry, 
with all the good nature in the world, found 
that the barrels were of different bore, his be- 
ing twelve and the Professor’s sixteen. After 
which discovery we had a morning's unavail- 
ing gnashing of teeth, and then the little man 
forgot his troubles in a new excitement. 

This was the first ice. We had sighted Bo- 
vet’s Island a few days before, when we saw 
it — a solemn, stately ice-hill, floating along 
island-like on a calm and unrippled sea. There’s 
something rather overpowering and awesome 
about a big berg. The deathly blue- whiteness 
of it, the silence that broods about it, the great 
grottoes that pierce its sides like tombs of the 
lost, the glassy radiance that does not cheer 


WE vSAIL SOUTH 


85 


but repels one — these things have a very de- 
pressing effect on me. I realized for the first 
time the sort of business we were going in for, 
and confessed to myself that a very little of 
this sort of thing would go a very long way. 
But it acted on the Professor’s spirits in quite 
another manner. 

We had rigged the crow’s-nest the day be- 
fore, and he was up in it before you could 
wink an eye. He leaned out over the edge of 
this eyrie, waggling his hands ecstatically, and 
singing songs of victory, welcoming this indi- 
cation that we were approaching our goal 
with a hubbub that resounded indecently 
among the echoes of the bergs. 

That was the only one we saw that evening, 
but next morning there were rows and rows 
of them, great pyramids of sheeny white, com- 
ing along in stately columns and companies, 
overhanging the blue sea, crashing now and 
again against each other, and hustling and 
grinding the floe-ice that dotted the wide sea- 
lanes between. 

We steamed cautiously down the aisles, dodg- 
ing from one sheet of open water to another. 
Now and again some unsteady pinnacle, loos- 
ening from the side of its parent berg in the 
heat of the sun, would plunge thunderously 
down the smooth slopes, and roar into the 
sea, sending great waves of curling foam to 
right and left, the rainbow rays dancing in 
the flying spray. The cascades poured contin- 
ually from basin to basin in the laps of the ice- 


86 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


liills, tinkling and plashing as they fell. Here 
and there, on the bare, smooth base of some 
mighty piece of glacier, rows of seals lay and 
basked in the sun, staring at us as we sHd by 
them with stupid, curious, brown eyes. Every 
now and again a sea-hon rose with a snort 
from some pool beneath the shadow of the shin- 
ing crags, and played and tossed happily among 
the ripples. The birds, tame as chickens, unac- 
customed to the sight of men, flew and swung 
and whirled and circled above us in clouds, tern 
wailing to tern, and gull to gull in plaintive 
outcry. And over all the sun shone with the 
strength of the Antarctic summer, now just be- 
ginning in its full vigor and brightness. 

It certainly was an uplifting day, and quite 
swept out of my head the despondent horrors 
of the evening before. I climbed to the crow’s- 
nest with Lessaution, and stayed beside him 
there hour after hour, drinking in all the glo- 
ries of the scene, and listening lazily to his bab- 
ble, taking pleasure in the mere joy of living. 

We rolled slowly down the lessening passages 
all that day, and at sunset lay to with springs 
on our cables, for the floe-ice surged upon us 
ceaselessly, making it too dangerous to charge 
in among the pack without the help of day- 
light. In fact, we had to keep watch and watch 
about and fend oflf with poles, as the great 
splinters tangled round us, and ride out and 
back more than once as a berg moved upon 
us ponderously. 

With the dawn we were under steam again. 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


8^ 


and wound our way in and out and about 
till, at mid-day, a shout from aloft proclaimed 
land in sight. And then we saw it. Far away, 
gray and shadowy through the haze it ran 
across the horizon, a long wall of rock or ice- 
faced cliff, reaching from east to west and dy- 
ing into the dimness of the ice-strewn sea. 

As we drew nearer, down the long corridors 
between the floes, it seemed to grow higher and 
more implacable at every mile. Sheer, ledgeless, 
and ice-smooth it was, never an approach or 
opening to its summit visible. 

The shadows beneath hung duskly over the 
ripples, making the blue of the outer ocean 
seem to have an edge of mourning on its bright- 
ness. Here and there a berg clanged and but- 
ted against it restlessly, grinding away huge 
masses of its flanks in showers of twinkling 
splinters. 

Along its sea-level the pack-ice heaved, eter- 
nally smoothing and planing its surface. About 
its face the sea-birds swirled, dipping and shrill- 
ing in their clouds. From many a httle channel 
on its summit the rivulets from the melting 
glaciers fell in sparkling cascades, like the swish- 
ing tails of a stabled squadron. And far be- 
yond it, smiting up haughtily into the empty 
blue, a giant range of mountains reared their 
heads, grim, white, and glancing in the sun- 
light. 

We slowed when we were witliin a mile of it, 
and then began to wear a way slowly along 
parallel to the land, waiting till we should see 


88 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


some sign of a break or cranny in the relent- 
less cliff. But never a sign of one was there. 
Early in the afternoon we raised islands to the 
north-east, and threw the lead, finding fifteen 
fathoms. We crept into the channel which ran 
between this archipelago and the mainland, 
and found a larger space of open water. Here, 
then, at Lessaution’s earnest request I an- 
chored, and dropped a boat down for him; 
with a crew of six we put off, and rowed down 
the narrow, changing passages towards the 
crags. 

The little Frenchman was sanguine that a 
nearer investigation would show a means of 
scaling the heights, but try as we would, and 
strain our eyes, as we did, to the uttermost, 
no vestige of a split or crevice in those endless 
walls of rock could we see. We rowed and 
rowed, but the result was ever the same. The 
sea-lanes between the floating lumps of floe 
stretched endlessly across the sea like the mesh- 
es of a spider’s web. We seemed to grope in 
an eternal maze, which had no appointed out- 
let. Only now and again could we approach 
the wall of ice and stone that overhung us. 
We had to be on guard continuously. The 
pack would spring and close like the jaws of 
a trap, and we had to back and row, and 
row and back, without cessation, to avoid its 
ever-waiting grip. One very sharp escape we 
had. We were lying on our oars, while the 
Professor examined some of the lichen which 
covered the cliff in patches, when we were 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


89 


suddenly aware, that what a moment before 
had been a sheet of water, clear for an acre 
around, was a fast thinning streak of sea. 
There was a yell from Rafferty, who steered, 
and then by backing furiously we managed 
to crawl into a pool between two sturdy bergs, 
and wind our way out into the less crowded 
channels. But as we saw the floe surge down 
upon the rock, and grate and grind upon it 
lingeringly, scoring away its own edges by the 
ton, we shuddered to think what an eggshell 
our boat would have been between that mighty 
hammer and that granite anvil. 

That day was but the precursor of many. 
The yacht, with banked fires, perpetually cork- 
screwed her way along about a mile from 
shore, and day by day we took our boat and 
wandered continually in the shadow of the 
frowning wall. In Lessaution’s breast hope 
burnt eternally, but only to be quenched at night. 
His plans were numerous, and some of them 
ludicrously ingenious. He suggested that a kite 
should be flown with a knotted rope attached, 
which might perchance catch in some crevice on 
the top, and permit him to give us a gymnastic 
display. He wondered if the carpenter could 
not manufacture a hundred-foot ladder, and 
then anchoring the good ship Racoon below the 
precipice, enable us to place the highest rung 
against the top. He even proposed that Gerr3’' 
should throw his cartridges into the common 
stock — this I am convinced was partly from 
jealousy at Gerry’s owning these useful articles. 


90 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

which he had forgotten— that they should be 
opened, and that the resulting powder should 
be used to blast a way from point to point, 
and thus a path be won over these disgrace- 
ful rocks at which he shook his fist perpet- 
ually. 

These futile proposals meeting the contempt 
they deserved, he became gloomy and morose, 
hinting strongly that our hearts were not really 
in this quest, and affirming that he, with his 
unquenchable French valor, was perfectly pre- 
pared to be left upon an iceberg with such pro- 
vision as we could spare, if we thought it ad- 
visable to give up the adventure through our 
want of spirit. 

After about three weeks of this sort of thing I 
ventured to interpose. I explained to him care- 
fully that I did not purpose giving up the expe- 
dition altogether, but that I must plead for an 
interval in it. I affirmed mendaciously that I 
had arranged with the worthy Crum to call at 
the Falkland Isles in case there should be mat- 
ters of importance to be telegraphed or other- 
wise sent — I had not the least idea if there 
was a telegraph station, and had a notion 
the post went once a year — and I must beg 
to be allowed to proceed there for this pur- 
pose, to re-coal, and to get further store of 
provision. 

The unfortunate little man lamented despe- 
rately. Once let us get away when we were 
thus on the spot, and it was inevitable that 
we should never return. Might we not have 


WE SAIL SOUTH 


91 


one more week — nay, a day? ^That very evening 
as we knocked off work he had viewed a break 
in the top-line of these unbending crags, of 
which he had the brightest hopes. How could 
we find the spot again? He must implore — he 
must entreat. 

F or once I was adamant. I explained that if 
we were to be detained here by any accident 
with our slender supply of fuel and provision, 
things might be very awkward. I showed how 
necessary it was for a man in my position to 
be in touch with his lawyer every few months. 
I reiterated my assurance that we should re- 
turn, using every oath and affirmation that I 
thought convincing. But it was a sorrow- 
stricken face that the poor little man hung over 
the stern the next morning as we turned our 
prow northwards, and the cliffs drew down into 
the veil of the haze. 

Gerry had at first shown unbounded aston- 
ishment at this sudden change of plan, but dur- 
ing my discussion with the Professor a light 
seemed to strike him. He retired to the saloon, 
and through the skylight I saw him consulting 
a manuscript note or two which I could have 
sworn were in a feminine hand. He came on 
deck with an unclouded brow. 

“To-day’s the 29th, isn’t it?” he queried 
cheerily. Then turning to Waller he demanded, 
“How long shall we take to steam to Port 
Lewis, captain?” 

“About a week, sir,” responded that func- 
tionary readily, and my young friend faced me 


92 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


with a grin splitting his ingenuous counte- 
nance. 

“You old humbug,” he chuckled. “Coal in- 
deed; provisions running short, are they? Go 
on,” and on we went. 


CHAPTER VII 
A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 

I received Gerry’s more explicit congratula- 
tions in private. The poor little Professor con- 
tinued to bemoan our desertion of the quest 
with such heart-breaking insistence, that the 
merest suspicion that it was no stern necessity 
that bade us sail north would, we felt sure, 
induce paroxysms of fury. We cheered him to 
the best of our ability, by picturing our early 
return refreshed for deeds of high emprise in 
rock climbing, and with perfected means for 
their accomplishment. But he continued to be- 
wail himself. 

It was about six days after we had turned 
our backs upon the great rock wall, that the 
wind began to get up strongly from the north, 
and we had to thrust our way slowly enough 
through the great* surges that rolled down upon 
us mercilessly from the Atlantic, with four 
thousand miles of gathered impact at their 
back. 

Our good little boat cleft her way through 
their white manes with a sturdy shove and 
shake of her prow, sending the spray swinging 
in jets before her cutwater, and flooding her 
decks as she dipped to the rollers and sent 
them roaring down beneath the bridge. 


94 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


Two men had to be lashed to the wheel, and 
the crew took their stations between watch 
and watch, only by the activity with which 
they dodged the incoming billows. Two of our 
boats were swept from the davits, and half the 
deck-house windows were smashed before we 
got them battened over. The cook kept a fire 
in the galley by the display of the most extra- 
ordinary agility, and our meals were snappy 
and disconnected. Nor did we take much pleas- 
ure in them. Gerry and I had found our sea- 
legs to a certain extent, but poor little Lessau- 
tion was a terrible sufferer, and we found it 
hard to take a neighborly interest in his be- 
havior — he would insist in coming on deck, 
though he had to be lashed there — and after- 
wards find appetite for the cook’s hastily im- 
provised dainties. 

We had twenty-four hours of this sort of 
thing, and then it began to get monotonous. 
The wind dropped little by Httle, but the sea 
was nearly as high as ever, and the evening 
closed down upon us with our wretchedness 
still supreme, and the waves pervading every- 
thing from the cabins to the stokehole. We 
joined Eccles in the engine-room, where, if not 
dry, we were at least warm, and toasted our 
steaming clothes before the red glow of the fur- 
naces, while we took exercise by bracing our- 
selves to avoid being dashed into the heart of 
the machinery by the great heaves and strug- 
gles of the fighting ship. It was a way of 
passing an evening which came with some 


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS . 95 

originality and freshness to both G'erry and 
myself, aiid we stayed there late confabulating 
over our prospects, and wondering whether our 
attempt at an interview with our young 
women would be successful, and what sort of 
greeting we shotdd receive. 

“It’s all very well for you now,” said Gerry 
despondently, “you’re all right. You’ve got 
your title and an income, which might be 
worse by a long way, but where do I come in? 
I’m as badly olf as ever. You’ll have to work 
your new-found influence pretty vigorously to 
get me any sort of billet to satisfy my ma-in- 
law.” 

“That sort of thing’ll have to come later,” I 
answered. “Probably we shan’t get more than 
an hour with them, if that. Port Lewis isn’t 
such an enticing sort of place, from what I’ve 
heard, that the Madagascar's likely to stay 
there long. They’ll just coal and that’s about 
all. But if Denvarre and his brother haven’t 
settled matters by now — which the Lord for- 
bid! — I think it won’t do us any harm to re- 
mind our young women that we’re aHve and 
still taking an interest in them. But with Den- 
varre for competitor I don’t see that you’re 
worse off than I am. Don’t let’s, brood, though, 
old chap, but let what will betide. If our 
chances are gone from us completely, then we’ve 
got the best possible counter-irritant to depres- 
sion handy. We can turn back and find our 
excitement still* waiting for us at the foot of 
that stupendous wall.” 


96 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


Gerry smiled hopefully, bending forward for a 
light for his pipe. A dreamy look crossed his 
face as he swayed apathetically to the roll of 
the ship, and as he rose and braced himself 
with his arm around a stanchion I could see 
that he was musing mistily over the future. I 
felt a httle that way myself, and there was a 
silence between us for a time, broken only by the 
regular beat and clang as the great piston rods 
thrust themselves backwards and forwards, 
and the eccentrics jolted round clamorously. 

Suddenly from the deck above came a hail, 
and Janson thrust his face, glistening with salt- 
foam flecks, into the disc of light where the 
man-hole gave upon the darkness. 

“Light on the starboard bow, my lord,” he 
bellowed, to make himself heard above the jar 
of the machinery and the shriek of the storm. 
“The skipper thinks there must be a whaler 
a-fire.” 

Gerry and I snatched at our oilskins, which 
we had dofled when we had descended from the 
sousings of the deck, and climbed the little iron 
ladder unsteadily. We were still ploughing our 
way into the trough of the head-sea, we found, 
when we gained the deck, but the great rollers 
did not come shooting over the bow and down 
the slippery planks as they had done an hour 
or two before. The sea was evidently going 
down, but was heavy enough yet to .make us 
pity from the bottom of our hearts any poor 
wretches who had to battle with it in open 
boats. 


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 97 

Far away, very dimly and intermittently as 
we rose on the crest of wave after wave, a 
light flickered now and again away to star- 
board, shooting up occasionally into brightness 
as we and the burning craft stood out on the 
top of a sea together, lost utterly when both 
of us sank back into the trough between the 
seas, and evidently drifting towards us rapidly 
before the force of the northern gale. 

I clambered up on to the bridge beside Waller, 
and bawled into his ear. 

“Shall we be able to help,” I questioned 
stentoriously, “or is it too late?” 

“Too late to do anything for her,” he 
shrieked back, shaking his dripping head, “but 
we ought to stand by for her boats, if they can 
live with them, poor wretches.” 

The stress of conversation was too great to 
indulge in further. I grasped the rail before me 
and stood at Waller’s right hand, straining my 
eyes into the night. We needed all our strength, 
really, for the screw, but at Janson’s sugges- 
tion the dynamo was set going, and our little 
searchlight streamed out in a thin shaft of 
light into the darkness. It tinged the frothy 
breakers with a dead white glow as of hoar- 
frost. 

So we rode forward into the storm, the wind 
shrieking: through our strained cordage, the 
spray falling like the lash of whips on our 
glistening' decks, and the thud and swish of 
the surges against our bows answering the 
regular thump and rattle of the anchor-chains 
7 




98 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

in .the hawse-pipe, and the racket of the groan- 
ing machinery’ that echoed up from below. 

Far ahead the little zone of golden light 
flashed before us, dancing and winking amid 
the tossing of the seas, darting here and there, 
pulsing quiveringly down the shaft of bright- 
ness that fed it from our top, flitting like some 
brilliant petrel of the night from crest to crest, 
spurning the foam, glittering through the veils 
of hissing spray that fell behind it like cascades 
of radiant jewels. And after it we waddled 
along steadily, fighting the rollers, flinching 
before the sting of the flipping drift, nosing into 
the depths of the green combs of angry water, 
rolling, pitching, jarring and quivering, but* 
ever following like some trustworthy and at- 
tentive duck trailing after an evasive humming- 
bird. 

The sheen of the furnace upon the sea was 
gleaming nearer. At times the glimmer of its 
flames was hid from us, as some mountain- 
like wall of water flung itself in between, but 
the glow of it was never lost to us. VYe could 
see the sparks stream up like puny rockets, as 
the gale planed them off the edge of the blaze, 
flinging them in clouds to leeward, as the un- 
governed hulk swung heavil^^ between the seas. 
The mn.sts were pillars of living flame, that 
streamed into the night in bannerets of fire. 
Out of the main hatchway a solid white-hot 
glow of light was projected, shot with red 
streaks as burning splinters floated up in the 
strong sea-draught. From stem to stern the 




A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 


99 


unfortunate bark was wrapped in a fiery sheet 
as the conflagration leaped and roared about 
it, devouring the seas that broke aboard into 
clouds of rosy steam. 

“God help the poor wretches,” I shouted to 
Waller; “there’s no one left alive on that.” 

“No, my lord, not this half-hour back. It’s 
their boats I’m watching for,” he answered, as, 
with the peak of his cap pressed over his eyes, 
he strained his gaze into the night. “It’s a ten 
to one chance against any boat living in this 
sea, but — well, there’s always a but, my 
lord.” 

Janson was flirting the searchlight about and 
about the blazing hulk, like a very will-o’-the- 
wisp. It fled round it questioningly, picking 
at and dipping to every floating piece of wreck- 
age, but never a one showed the sign of boat 
or human being. With our steam to help us, 
there was no danger in approaching the float- 
ing furnace as near as we thought well, and 
we slid up towards it as it lurched past us, 
till the heat of it blistered across the red seas 
on to our salt-cracked faces smartingly. The 
sparks skipped by us, and hissed like little ad- 
ders on our streaming planks, but gaze as we 
would, nothing but charred timbers and leap- 
ing breakers met our eyes. We plunged forward 
into the darkness again, as she lumbered by 
before the wind. 

“We ought to hang about in the direction 
she came from,” explained Waller thunderously. 
“The boats, if they lived, wouldn’t keep her 
LofC. 


100 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


pace. They aren’t so much exposed to the 
gale.” 

I nodded, still gripping the rail before me, 
not wishing to waste breath that was twisted 
from one’s very lips by the wind, before it 
could frame a single intelligent word. 

So we plodded on for a quarter of an hour 
or more, seeing nothing. I could but remember 
what agonies the unfortunate victims of this 
jnischance must be suffering, if by any terrible 
hap they were swinging near us on those hun- 
gry seas, seeing help and safety at hand, and 
yet without a hope of rescue save by utter 
chance. And I thanked God for the wet deck 
below me that I had been cursing but a short 
hour back. 

“I suppose the oil caught fire?” I asked Wal- 
ler, as a slight lull gave one a chance to make 
oneself heard. “I shouldn’t have thought any 
ship could have flared like that in this se?i.” 

“She’s no whaler, my lord,” returned the 
skipper decidedly; “I can’t quite make out her 
build. More like a liner, only no liner would „ 
be down this far south. She had big engines, 
judging by her funnels. Looked for all the 
world like one of the old Black Cross Line.” 

“The Black Cross Line!” I repeated wonder- 
ingly ; ‘ ‘why, that’s a funny thing. Some friends 
of mine have gone cruising in one of their 

steamers round ” and then the frightful 

horror of it took me by the throat, and I could 
have shrieked aloud. The Black Cross Line! 
The Madagascar was one of their boats, yacht- , 


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 101 

fitted for cruising. Oh! the thing was impos- 
sible. It was some coincidence that fate had 
raised up to frighten me. Waller just spoke in 
the hap-hazard way men do when they make 
comparisons. Of course, he had served on some 
vessel of the fleet, and his thoughts strayed 
back to it. And yet — and yet— no ordinary 
liner would be sailing these seas. And the Mad- 
agascar was expected in these latitudes. My 
God ! it was a thing too wanton for even my 
luck to have conceived and brought about. 
No fate could be so devilish as to drag me out 
these weary thousands of miles to see my love’s 
agony of death in these desolate southern seas. 
No; no God that ruled the universe could al- 
low it. I wrestled with the cold reason that 
insisted that these things could be, and that it 
was stretching the limits of mere coincidence to 
say they were not. 

Into my tortures of despair a hail from Jan- 
son broke, and he swung the leaping flash-light 
from before our bow like a lightning streak. 
It streamed, a path of light across the billows, 
to port, and centred' there on a tumbling, reel- 
ing object, buffeted by the bluster of the break- 
ers, half hidden by the curtain of the spin-drift. 
Together Waller and I tore at the wheel, and 
slewed the ship towards it. Slowly, ever so 
languidly, the bows came round, and began to 
edge across to where the disc of light hovered 
unblinkingly. The dark object leaped up ever 
and anon, poised upon the dancing surge, only 
to drop back as if engulfed absolutely in the 


102 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


dark abyss behind the roll of the breaker. A 
white object fluttered, as we could see between 
these intermittent eclipses, streaming out 
against the yellow light glaringly. Round this, 
as we drew near, we could distinguish a huddle 
of misty outlines, animate or inanimate we 
could not tell. 

We circled heavily to windward, and Waller 
roared his orders to the crew. The oil-bags 
were hung outboard, and as they dribbled lin- 
geringly across the surface of the foam, the 
tossing died down as by magic. Half-a-dozen 
seamen clustered at the side, and with uplifted 
hands, swayed coils of rope above their heads. 
The engines slowed as the engine-room bells 
clanged, and we half stayed. Then with the 
blow of a great roller upon our lifting keel we 
staggered on again. 

Still nearer we floundered, drifting broadside 
on, to the round yellow patch wherein the dim 
mass still danced uncertainly. Nearer still, and 
we hovered over it, reeling under the thunder- 
ous blows that the windward waves ham- 
mered upon us, and rolling nigh bulwarks un- 
der into the oily calm to leeward. Nearer 
again, and the ropes lashed out like whip-cords 
across the interval from the waiting crew, and 
were caught and hauled at desperately by the 
eager wretches aboard the pitching boat. Near- 
er now, almost under the churn of our wash, 
and the searchlight stared down unquiveringly 
into every crevice of its wild confusion, swath- 
ing each face in its glare. And white and set. 






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OUT ... OF THAT BLACK YEASTY WHIRLPOOL CAME MY LOVE. 

Page loj. 



A light in the darkness 


103 


silhouetted haggardly against the blackness of 
the outer night, the face of my love — my own 
dear love — looked up into my unbelieving 
eyes. 

I heard an exclamation from Waller as I 
flung myself from the wheel, and heard him 
grip his breath as he braced himself to meet 
the plunge of the ship alone. I was but hu- 
man, and who was I to stand unmoved be- 
side him there when the light of my eyes was 
swayed in the grasp of death before me? I 
took a leap on to the wet and slanting deck, 
and fell upon my hands, but rose beside the 
bulwark unhurt and panting. Then a hail 
from the boat reached across to us above the 
raving of the wind, and I saw our men tug 
frantically at a rope that tautened suddenly. 
A dark body came swiftly flying up to the 
bulwarks as the men hauled, and with eager 
hands we seized it, fending it from the jump- 
ing list of the timbers. A single glance showed 
me Lady Delahay’s face, sunken and shrivelled 
with fifty new lines of haunting fear. Another 
hail, another strenuous pull, and Violet fell into 
the arms that Gerry held out to receive her. 
And then — ay, then, and till I go out into the 
eternal beyond, the memory of it will be vivid 
in my inmost soul — out of the swirl and up- 
roar of that black, yeasty whirlpool came my 
love into my embrace, and lay upon my breast. 

We bore them into the cabin, and poured cor- 
dials between their white lips. We chafed their 
frozen hands and fetched hot bricks from the 


104 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


engine-room to place beneath their feet. We 
tore off their outer garments — ^for ceremony 
flies through' the porthole when death is knock- 
ing at the door — and wrapped blankets round 
them and rubbed their limbs furiously. We did 
everything that men can do, of a good pur- 
pose but unhandily, to bring them back from 
the edge of the eternal sleep whereon they hov- 
ered, and soon — in the younger women’s case 
at least — with success. Then as their eyes 
opened,* and the color began to creep back 
languidly into their cheeks, and they sat up 
in utter wonder at their surroundings, we left 
them, with every appliance we could furnish 
forth, to revive in her turn their mother, giving 
them but little explanation of their wherea- 
bouts, and being eyed by them with a surprise 
that we could but hope had pleasure at its 
back. But this was no time for sentimental 
musings, and we hurried on deck to see what 
had betided to the others. 

Eight men had been hauled by main force 
from the tumbling boat, which had reeled more 
and more tempestuously as her living ballast 
lightened, and the last poor fellow, with no 
restraining hand on the far end of the line, 
had been bumped fearfully against the bulge 
of the hull as we rolled back. But bruises were 
the worst that any man had received, and we 
hustled them into the smoke-room unceremoni- 
ously. 

Janson was still flinging the searchlight rays 
across the tumbling waste of water, but a 


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 105 

word from one of the half-drowned mariners 
made us stay him. 

“Not another two spars are afloat together 
of the other boats,” he gasped, as the blood 
began to flow again in his frozen veins. “Every 
one was matehwooded against the side as they 
left. Ours was earned Ob' half full by a wave 
that broke the painter, or I shouldn’t be here, 
and thank God for it.” 

“How many aboard you?” I asked, shudder- 
ing to think what a toll the night had taken ; 
“you’re the Madagascar, aren’t you?” 

“Yes, we’re the Madagascar,” he answered 
slowly and with surprise, “though I don’t 
know how you know it, seeing you’ve let the 
boat drift. An hour ago she was the finest 
pleasure craft afloat, with a hundred and 
twenty passengers and fifty crew as jolly as 
could be. And now there’s us,” and he flung 
his hands out towards his fellows with a ges- 
ture of weak despair. 

“An hour ago!” I demurred, “more than 
that, my man, surely. She could never have 
blazed up to a bon-fire like that in the time.” 

“I tell you, sir,” he answered obstinately, 
“that less than an hour ago six score of happy 
men and women were feeding theirselves as 
contented as could be in her saloon. And 
now,” he added grimly, “they’re feeding the 
fishes. And in that boat for three-quarters of 
an hour we’ve been tossing over their dead, 
drowned carcasses, reckoning that every minute 
would see us join them. And Captain — my 


106 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


captain, what I’ve sailed with this ten years 
past — he’s down there among them, and I’m 
here, and ought to be thankin’ God, and I keep 
cursin’ every time I give myself leave to think. 
And that’s what eomes of followin’ the sea, 
sir,” and he laid his rough, damp, grizzled head 
upon the table, and burst into a storm of 
hysterieal tears. 

The others were eoming back to consciousness 
one by one. Baines touched me on the shoul- 
der. 

“There’s one here that won’t last long, my 
lord, I fear,” he said, leading me towards the 
other end of the saloon, where another limp 
body was stretehed aeross the table. “We 
ean’t bring him round at all.” 

It came as no shoek of surprise to reeognize 
Denvarre’s faee and drooping yellow mous- 
taehe. His eyes were elosed ; his cheeks fell in 
limply against his jaws; the breath came in a 
thin wheezy hiss from between his white lips. 
He was in the last stages of eold and exhaus- 
tion. They tried in vain to foree brandy be- 
tween his set teeth. He had not the museular 
power of swallowing left. It did indeed look as 
if Baines was right. 

I won’t stop to tell you the thoughts that 
seethed and ran riot in my brain as I saw him 
fighting for his life with the eold that had nigh 
mastered his pulses. They belong to the cate- 
gory of devilish inspirations that eome to a 
man when some wild battle with nature fur- 
nishes forth a throw baek to pure animalism; 


A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 107 

when self is uttermost and honor unborn. 
They are monstrous phantasms of the brain 
too dark to materialize into wholesome words, 
and best forgotten save when the system needs 
a purge of shame. God forgive me my desires 
at that single moment — for a space of mere 
seconds saw me myself again. 

Suffice it to say that with every aid we could 
devise we joined him in his wrestle with the 
death that was gripping him for the final 
throw. We fetched spirits, and rasped every 
part of his body with rough towels soaked in 
whisky. We smote with our palms upon his 
rigid limbs, and bent and kneaded his unyield- 
ing joints j we thrust heated bricks against his 
feet and hands; finally, at Janson’s suggestion, 
we collected handfuls of the sleet that was fall- 
ing on the decks, and grated them furiously 
upon his skin. And at last the life began to 
flicker in him. 

A tinge — ^faint and barely perceptible at first, 
but growing in strength — began to filter into 
his cheeks. A sigh burst from his throat and 
the tense lips parte'd. We tilted brandy drop 
by drop into his mouth, and heard his splutter- 
ing cough with jpy. And then of his own ef- 
fort he stirred and whispered faintly. 

“Gwen?” he queried in a faint, far-away 
voice, and it was for me to answer him. 

“Safe, and on board,” said I cheerily, as my 
heart sledge-hammered at my ribs, and my 
hands twitched to grasp his throat and tear 
the chords of speech away from him eternally. 


108 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

“Quite safe, old man, and coming round 
nicely.” 

He smiled a happy, drowsy smile that stayed 
and slept upon his face as he wandered back 
into consciousness. And then I left him to his 
brother — who was among the rescued — and to 
Baines, and went stolidly up on deck, the fires 
of hell burning in my heart, and rage — the in- 
sane, unreasoning rage of disappointment — 
astir in my blood. 

“Gwen, Gwen,” I repeated to myself, as I 
flung myself out into the gale that still slashed 
cuttingly down the deck. “Gwen she is to 
him, and, curse him, she’s Gwen no longer to 


CHAPTER VIII 


BEFORE THE GALE 

I stood beneath the bridge holding on to a 
friendly stanehion, and gazing apathetieally be- 
fore me. I could see Waller’s brawny figure out- 
lined upon the bridge, every movement of his 
muscles showing up against the moonlit sky. 
He wrestled strenuously with the bucking wheel 
as it fought in his grasp, while above him the 
ragged clouds scudded fiercely, giving him the 
effect of rushing violently backward into space 
as they passed swiftly over him. The wind had 
increased with the rise of the waning moon, 
and the lull, which mercifully allowed us to 
rescue the derelict boat, was blotted out in a 
turmoil of foam and fury. The tumult of the 
night found an echo in my heart. 

For, unlike my usual custom, I had allowed 
myself to hope. In my conceit of my plan for 
gaining an interview with Gwen — in my hopes 
and fears of our n?eeting coming off— I had not 
dwelt much on the fact that it might end in 
failure— in despair. Gerry was partly responsi- 
ble for this. For the last week he had con- 
tinually dinned his sanguine reassurances into 
my ears till they had almost ousted my natural 
pessimism. I had forgotten to deceive Fate 
with a pretence of despondency, and she had 


110 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

turned to sneer wickedly in my face and to 
flout me for my inattention. I gripped the 
stanchion savagely as I thought of these things, 
I turned a silent face to the hubbub of the 
night, while every passion of my body rioted 
in my brain. I took an infuriate comfort in the 
thunderous grapple of the elements. 

For, look at it how I would, I was con- 
demned to hours— if not days— of smiling tor- 
ture. Here was I cooped up in the same ship 
with the woman to whom I had utterly given 
over my heart, and honor — bare courtesy, in 
fact — forbade me to so much as hint to her my 
love. Mere common kindness bade me further 
the wooing of my rival. And he — I gnashed my 
teeth as I remembered it — if my luck had only 
allowed, might have been a thousand fathoms 
deep in this shrieking whirlpool of a sea. If 
ever the temptations of Cain filled a man’s 
heart, they crowded mine that tempest-ridden 
night. 

I fought with my passion, thrusting these 
ideas back from me, conjuring up to myself 
every thought of chivalry that my upbringing 
could give birth to. I remembered my apa- 
thetic renunciation of Gwen when we parted six 
months before — my calm and fatalistic deter- 
mination to live down dispassionately the de- 
sire of my life. None the more did it bring 
comfort as I told myself that now I had the 
right and the means to win her — that as before 
God, and not before a sordid, money- worship- 
ping world, we were just man and maid, and 


BEFORE THE GALE 


111 


had looked upon each other in natural love and 
liking. I cursed the narrow world of Society 
with an insistence that gained power from the 
fact that I stood in the very cradle of nature’s 
wrath, and Society was dimmed by the dis- 
tance of three thousand miles — veiled behind a 
curtain of storm and dancing spray. Thus dur- 
ing the long hours of the night I battled with 
myself in disjointed, hopeless argument, and 
the storm rattled round me with growing 
clamor. 

It was about three in the morning when the 
climax of the tempest came. A shock quivered 
up from our stern, vibrating through every 
timber of our hull as if by electricity — a tremor 
such as no mere breaking wave could have 
caused. It was as if we had been smitten by 
some Titan sledge-hammer. Above the bellow 
of the storm I heard Waller’s cry of dismay, 
and saw the wheel spin uselessly through his 
hands. He came headlong down from the 
bridge. 

I sprang forward to steady him as he half 
stepped, half fell from the ladder, and he lurched 
into my arms. As the unguided ship swung 
round before the impact of the rollers, the deck 
stood up at an angle that shed our footing 
from it. We gripped each other unhandily. 
The bow leaped, and shook itself as if in pain. 
A ponderous surge charged into it. The ship 
gave before the shock, throbbing through every 
timber. It swayed, hesitated, and then, de- 
feated in the unequal struggle, broached to, and 


112 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


lay in the trough of the sea. A great flood 
roared down the deck, snatching up the cap- 
tain and myself in its green mane and dash- 
ing us stunningly against the deck-house. We 
spluttered and choked, gasping for breath. 

“The rudder-chains are broken,” exclaimed 
Waller hoarsely, as he gulped and crowed, and 
he made a dash for the foc’sle, roaring aloud 
for the watch below. They never heard him till 
he thrust his face into the very door. Unstead- 
ily they came tumbling out to scramble along 
the listed deck, and find and splice the sundered 
links. The rattle of their intermitting hammer- 
ings and draggings could only be heard if you 
stood within a foot of them. 

The seas boiled over us eternally while this 
was doing, and for half-an-hour we were prac- 
tically beneath the waves, the ship settling 
under the weight of water as she rolled broad- 
side into the seas. The engine still thrashed 
wearily round, but ungoverned as we were, our 
leeway was twice our speed of steam. We only 
butted our prow more and more under the 
combs of the great rollers. Finally six men 
were stationed with ropes spliced to the broken 
chains, and Waller mounted the bridge again. 
By strenuous tugs they hauled upon the tiller 
as his hand motioned to them, and slowly we 
came round to face the gale again. As we did 
there was a clang and a jar. The white wake 
faded from behind us, and came flying up past 
the sides. We were sidling back with gathering 
speed into our sternway. The cover was flung 


BEFORE THE GALE 


113 


off the engine-room man-hole, and Eceles’s griz- 
zled head appeared. 

“The propeller-shaft, my lord,” he bawled, his 
voice rising screamingly in his excitement, “the 
propeller-shaft’s split. I daren’t give her an- 
other turn in this sea.” 

As our way lost itself in the force of the con- 
tending waters, and died down into nothing- 
ness, we slowed, stopped, and a huge mass of 
ocean roared against our prow. It lifted, 
lifted, lifted, soaring towards the very heavens. 
I saw it eclipse a red, angry planet that I had 
noticed high above the bowsprit-stays a mo- 
ment before. It hovered a single tense instant, 
and then with a swirl and heave came flying 
round, reeling and staggering. There was a 
rush of the crew to gain some hold or to brace 
themselves against some shelter. Then with a 
frightful roll we swung over, and lay on our 
beam ends, the hungry waves licking along our 
submerged decks like wolves ravening for their 
quarry. 

Out of this hopelessness Waller led us like the 
brave man he wak After infinite research the 
carpenter produced a storm-sail, vrhich had not 
been buried beneath the weight of superincum- 
bent wreckage. Under the captain’s skilful 
supervision this was bent as a jib. Slowly, as 
the wind gained force upon it, we dragged from 
under the weight of the waves that were thrust- 
ing us deeper and deeper under their piled 
thronging, and drew round to show our stern 
to the wind. As we ploughed our way out of 
a 


114 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

the trough of the sea, the waters rushed more 
and more from off our streaming decks. We 
rose; the ship shaking itself like a dog. We 
gained speed. The men took up the rudder 
ropes they had flung aside, and in another two 
minutes we were riding — racing, before the gale, 
back — straight back — to the regions of the 
Great South Wall. 

As we gained way the ship steadied herself. 
The ponderous lurch and roll grew less. The 
keel sat more evenly in the hollow between the 
seas, cutting through their crests like a knife as 
the sail bellied out and tautened. We managed 
to get another piece of canvas spread, and then 
like a thing endowed with sudden life the Ra- 
coon began to tear before the wind, bursting 
aside the surges as she overtook them, as if she 
would revenge haughtily the shame they had 
put upon her helplessness. There was an ex- 
hilaration about the fury of our rushing. It 
was like riding a mettled and tireless steed. 

I left the crew to their work of re-connecting 
the broken rudder-chain and went below. The 
saloon was a desolation. Every movable thing 
had been swept to port by the list of our sud- 
den broach to. The table was leaning with its 
top against the side. A litter of glass and 
crockery filled the port corners. A mass of 
pantry gear had been shot across the floor. 
Smears of various sautes from the same local- 
it3^ stained the carpets. Water had forced itself 
down through the hatchwa^^— though this had 
been battened — and sparkled in puddles beneath 


BEFORE THE GALE 


115 


the electric light. The knives and forks and 
splinters of glass jingled as they clustered and 
broke apart again at each heave of the ship. 
And in the midst of this conglomerate desola- 
tion sat poor Lady Delahay and her daughters. 

The former rose hastily as I swung myself off 
the stairs into the doorv\^ay. She staggered 
towards me, her face white with anxiety. Her 
hand trembled as she dropped it unsteadily on 
my arm. 

“Lord Denvarre?” she questioned, tugging in- 
sistently at my sleeve. “He’s recovering?” 

“Right as the mail,” answered I; “he was a 
bit knocked out of time at first, but we’ve 
brought him round famously between us. And 
you?” I queried, “I hope you have been minis- 
tered to properly?” 

“I could think of nothing — absolutely noth- 
ing,” she answered, “while we were without 
news of him. Oh, Lord Heatherslie, supposing 
my darling had been practically widowed be- 
fore my eyes?” 

“It’s been a terrible night for you,” said I, 
“but I’m glad you were spared that crowning 
sorrow. Then I suppose I’m to congratulate 
Miss Gwendoline on her engagement?” I went 
on, looking across to where the two girls were 
trying to tidy up some of the worst of the 
jumbled disorder of the floor. “I’m sure she has 
the best wishes for luck and happiness from me.” 

“It’s not announced at all yet,” said the good 
lady hurriedly, “in fact, you see there was no 
one to announce it to. There were no people 


116 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


of any position on board, and it has only 
really been seriously taken into consideration 
the last few days. A little awkward, you 
know, under the circumstances, our being fel- 
low-travellers for so long. So we have decided 
that it shall not be recognized just yet. Just 
an understanding, you see, not a formal be- 
trothal till we return to England, if we ever 
do,” added the poor old thing doubtfully. “Oh, 
my dear Lord Heatherslie, shall we ever reach 
any port alive?” and she sank back on to the 
cushions of the locker seats with a groan. 

“Well, at present,” said I, “I must confess 
that we’re flying away from the nearest port 
at the rate of about twenty miles an hour. 
Our engine’s broken down, and we have to run 
before the gale. But it’ll only be the case of an 
hour or two, I hope, and then we shall be able 
to beat up for the Falklands. But it’ll be a 
long business at the best. You will have to 
put up with our bachelor quarters and our 
rough accommodation.” 

“Lord Heatherslie,” she said brokenly, “when 
I think what might have happened, I should be 
less than Christian if I didn’t give thanks with 
a full heart. Even though we have lost every- 
thing in the way of clothes and property, I 
have my darlings safe, and their happiness is 
secured. That is sufficient for me.” 

“Oh,” I said, “then I have to congratulate 
Miss Violet also. Mr. Garlicke, I presume?” I 
inquired with an air of savage festivity. Poor 
Gerry, his optimism was to get felled to earth 


BEFORE THE GALE 


Ilf 

along with mine. Well, I felt there was some- 
thing in both being in the same boat. We 
could make our moans in company. 

“Quite on a par with Gwendoline’s affair,” 
answered Lady Delahay, holding up a warning 
finger. “Nothing to be said about it yet, 
please. Is it poss b!e I recognized Mr. Carver 
on the deck?” 

“Quite possible,” I replied dryly, “you did. 
He and I and the Professor Lessaution — who is 
helping him tend the rescued men — are the only 
passengers aboard,” and as the girls gave over 
their useless competition with the litter of the 
crockery, and came and sat beside their mother, 
I began to give them the whole story. 

For a girl who had just been dragged by 
main force out of the blackest shadow of death, 
I never saw anything to equal Gwen. Her eyes 
were bright, her complexion was pink and shin- 
ing, the sparkle of the salt spray was on her 
hair. She looked as smiling and content as if 
she had found the desire of her heart, instead of 
having just seen fivescore of fellow-beings con- 
signed to a frightful end. Her gaze dwelt upon 
my face as she listened intently to my story. 
She looked as complacent as if we were at 
anchor off Monaco, instead of driving Lord 
knows where into an uncharted sea, before one 
of the fiercest gales that ever started a ring- 
bolt. I reflected with internal wretchedness 
that a girl’s horizon is bounded very narrowly 
when she is in love, and envied Denvarre under 
my breath furiously. 


118 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


In their turn they told me of their adventure, 
and what had befallen them on that night of 
horror. How in the midst of light and life, and 
the friendly converse of the yacht’s saloon, a 
dishevelled lampman had appeared, grimy, hot, 
and with fear of death writ largely on his face, 
and beckoned out the captain from amidst the 
throng. How, restless in his continued absence, 
one or two unquiet passengers had followed 
him, and returned with vague reports of a fire 
in the lamp-room forward, and how on the 
word the whole mob of passengers had surged 
on deck. That then the iron sea discipline of a 
well-ordered British merchant vessel had been 
closed around them instantly, and they had 
been marshalled in parties to the boats to 
which they had been assigned. But the fire 
continuing to gain, and the sea to rise, they 
had been confronted by an awful death on 
either hand. When the captain had been obliged 
to abandon hope, he had lowered away the 
first boat, and within seconds they had seen it 
dashed to pieces like an eggshell on their bul- 
warks. The second and third boats had shared 
the same fate, and two more had been 
swamped in sight of the vessel. Then as a last 
chance the captain had had a boat swung from 
the bow with a long tether, and they had been 
transferred to it one by one as the seas swung 
it backward and forward between their passing 
and repassing, but when but a dozen of them 
were aboard, the painter had parted — worn 
with the constant to and fro against the tim- 


BEFORE THE GALE ll9 

bers — and they had been swept to leeward as in 
a flash. Five minutes later the flames had 
covered the ship from stem to stern, and they 
shuddered when they told what they had seen, 
as dark forms began to drop from her red-hot 
decks into the merciful cold of the sea. And 
they ended the tale with the tears that are the 
due of utter terror and long despair, and I 
made no eflbrt to stay this gracious relief of 
nature’s pity. 

As the ship began to steady her plunging, we 
made efforts to find accommodation for the 
ladies, to whom, of course, we gave up our 
cabins. They were absolutely destitute of 
everything beyond what they stood up in, and 
were robed as it was in such rugs and blankets 
as had been collected while their outer garments 
were dried in the stoke-hole. We got them at 
last to retire and find a much-needed repose, a 
thing that their terror had forbidden so far, for 
the rolling of the masterless ship had been 
enough to make any one believe that she would 
only find a resting-place on the bottom of the 
furious sea. 

I left them with good wishes for sleep and for 
forgetfulness of the horrors they had experi- 
enced. I sought the smoke-room to make 
inquiry for the rescued men, and found that 
they had all lapsed into unconsciousness, tucked 
up in the blankets which the crew had sur- 
rendered to their use. Lessaution and Gerry 
were stretched upon the floor, sleeping heavily 
after their strenuous attendance on the half- 


120 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


frozen folk, and I left them to their slumbers; 
amid my own misery I had a heartache to 
spare for Gerry’s awakening of sorrow. 

I climbed up upon the bridge again and stood 
beside Waller. White-faced and haggard with 
the anxieties of the night, he was still at his 
post. He watched with hopeful eyes the com- 
ing of the dawn, which was already tingeing 
the east with an angry, lurid crimson. Still 
racing before the billows that hunted us we 
were plunging ever southward, returning 
swiftly down the track up which we had fought 
so ploddingly the last six days. The captain’s 
clothes hung about him in limp sodden cling- 
ings ; he leaned wearily upon the wheel, guiding 
it delicately in the strong grip of Rafferty, who 
shared the toil of restraining it. There was 
weariness and exhaustion in his every pose, 
but his eye was still bright and his face set 
steadfastly upon his duty. I watched him with 
admiration — the strong, confident sailor who 
held our lives resourcefully in his unshaken 
grip. A glow of pride pulsed through my veins 
as I recognized that this was the type of com- 
mander who was lifting England’s honor high 
across the seas of two hemispheres, that what 
this staunch self-reliant man was doing would 
have been done in like case by unreckoned 
hundreds of his fellows. I thanked God again 
for the mercies of the night, with special ac- 
knowledgment for the fact that we were 
manned by a wholesome British crew. 

I laid my hand lightly upon his shoulder. 


BEFORE THE GALE 


121 


“Take a rest, captain,” said I; “let Janson 
come and have his spell. You’ve been at it 
twelve long hours already. Surely there’s noth- 
ing left but to let her drive.” 

“Thanks, my lord,” he answered, smiling 
back cheerily into my inquiring eyes. “Jan- 
son’s only been two hours below. I’ll give him 
an hour longer at least.” 

“But Rafferty’s here, and I can hold the 
wheel, if that’s all,” said I reproachfully; 
“what’s the good of killing yourself, man?” 

“I’ve had many a longer bout in weather no 
better,” and he shifted the spokes a point in his 
deft, unhesitating hands. 

“But what’s the trouble?” I answered, almost 
irritated by his unswerving determination. 
“Why can’t we take her from you? We’ve got 
the sense not to let her broach to, at any 
rate.” 

“Ice is the matter, my lord. Ice — and acres of 
it. You forget we’re racing back into the 
South at fifteen knots an hour. If the gale 
doesn’t drop before evening, we shall be among 
the bergs again. We may meet out-lying floes 
at any moment.” 

“Then we’d call you,” said I argumenta- 
tively; “so just you skip along and take a 
snooze with a clear conscience.” 

“Thanks, my lord, I shouldn’t sleep,” he said 
dryly, wiping the spray from -his beard, and 
there was nothing further to be said. I 
shrugged my shoulders and left him there, vigi- 
lant, alert, eternally craning his eyes into the 


122 BEYOND YHE GEEAY SOtTH WALL 


veil of the spin-drift, a valiant w^arrior of the 
deep. 

The presage of the lurid sunrise was fulfilled. 
All day long the gale shrieked and raved be- 
hind us, screaming through our taut rigging 
like some inarticulate storm-spirit’s agony. 
The sullen waves still thundered after us, lifting 
our stern, and burying our bows now and 
again in the crest of some laggard comber. 
They broke thunderously across our bulwarks, 
dashing themselves into a very dust of spray. 
It glistened snow-like in the sun-rifts, as they 
broke now and again through the leaden haze 
that hid the sky. The scud of the clouds kept 
pace above us, wreathing and twisting into a 
thousand fantastic shapes. The gulls screamed 
and hovered, and the petrels dipped and scurried 
from crest to crest. The roar of the surges and 
the shiver of the laboring timbers followed one 
upon the other monotonously. One got stupe- 
fied by their ceaseless, recurrent boom and thud. 

About mid-day the stress of the night began 
to tell upon me. I remembered that during 
four-and-twenty hours of physical and mental 
excitement I had had no sleep. I staggered 
wearily down into the smoke-room, curled my- 
self up beside Gerry’s still motionless form, and 
before I had closed eye a minute, sank off into 
dreamless unconsciousness. 

The dark was falling again as I woke. Both 
Gerry and Lessaution had disappeared, but I 
cduld hear the bellow of the tempest strong as 
ever. 


123 


BEFORE THE GALE 

I scrambled to my feet, and made my way 
uneertainly to the saloon. The remains of a 
meal stood uncleared upon the table, and I be- 
gan to satisfy a hunger which had got stupen- 
dous. Then baek up the pitching companion- 
steps I tottered, and strode out upon the deek. 

The seas were still leaping along our sides, 
but not quite so strongly. Up on the bridge I 
reeognized Janson’s burly figure, and perceived 
with thankfulness that Waller had at last sur- 
rendered his post. In the bow Gerry and Les- 
saution were elutching the foremost stays, and 
pointing exeitedly before them. I wormed my 
way along the deck and joined them. 

Standing out blue-white above the froth of 
the boiling sea a great ieeberg was rearing its 
head. It hung there haughtily and unmoved, 
despising the rage that made the breakers raven 
at its feet. The wind shrieked about its pin- 
nacles, thrusting one now and again from its 
seat upon the iee buttresses, and sending it 
erashing into the deep. But the main mass of ^ 
the white mountain stayed motionless, a 
mighty breakwater sheltering the leeward sur- 
face into a rippling pool. 

Janson raised his hand to his mouth, and 
roared some indistinguishable order to the 
watch on deck. The men eame racing forward, 
and hauled at the sheets. The sails eame 
lumbering down, and as we lost the steadiness 
of their grip upon the wind we began to pitch 
and tumble again. 

Not for long. The wheel spun in the mate’s 


124 BEYOND THE GREAT vSOUTH WALL 


hands, and with our way still swift upon us we 
began to turn. We nosed in towards the white 
pyramid. We swung past its leeward edge. 
Our cutwater broke a burnished line across the 
stillness of the sheltered pool. In a very in- 
stant the travail of our storm-hunted vessel 
ceased. We swung, heaved to, upon the calm, 
gently swaying to the ripples, while outside the 
storm still bellowed for our lives. 

Behind this sudden refuge we lay almost mo- 
tionless, looking up wonderingly at the shin- 
ing peaks above. Baines and the cook accepted 
the altered conditions with surprise and thank- 
fulness, making immediate preparations for a 
meal which should obliterate the discomforts 
of the past eight-and-forty hours. The smoke 
began to curl anew from the galley, and vari- 
ous tinned victuals were disinterred from the 
pantry wreckage. 

Within five minutes of our finding this unex- 
pected harbor the door of the captain’s cabin 
opened, and Waller strode forth, gaping upon 
our changed surroundings. The sixth sense 
that lies in the seaman’s brain had warned 
him, sleeping as he was, that we no longer 
dipped and tossed amid the breakers. A glance 
to starboard, and he understood, giving Jan- 
son a quick nod as the other pointed to the 
ice. He stayed still a moment, watching the 
edge of the berg curiously, and then climbed 
up and joined the mate. 

I could not hear the words they exchanged, 
but I saw a shake of Waller’s head as he jerked 


BEFORE THE GATE 


125 


his thumb over his shoulder. They strode to- 
gether to one end of the bridge, and the cap- 
tain gesticulated toward the berg again. A 
half-smile crossed Janson’s face. He was evi- 
dently meeting his chief’s arguments with a 
polite incredulity. Following the line of Wal- 
ler’s pointing finger, I was in time to see a 
strange thing happen. 

The edge of the ice rose slowly, but percep- 
tibly, mounting from the water-level with a 
heavy swish. I looked up in amazement, and 
saw the topmost pinnacles bow slantingly 
across the drifting clouds. There was a suck 
and a wash as the water rolled in toward 
the ice to fill the vacuum. The berg lurched 
slowly back again, and a big breaker gathered 
itself up, and crested out toward us. There 
was a line of foam across the pool. 

An order roared from between Waller’s lips, 
and Janson came at a bound from the bridge 
to wake the watch below. His face was white 
with terror. He shrieked into the foc’sle in a 
shrill, unnatural voice. 

The men came leaping up, and at the cap- 
tain’s shout dropped the two port boats over 
the side. A rope ,was passed to them, and with 
furious tugs they passed ahead, towing des- 
perately. The men left on deck set the sails 
again, waiting for the first breath of the gale 
to catch them. They stared wide-eyed over 
their shoulders, watching, staring, gluing their 
gaze to the mighty ice-cliffs astern. 

I scrambled up to Waller, full of unquiet sun. 


126 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALE 

prise. I felt that something was imminent — 
some possible disaster that I could not fathom. 
I demanded explanations. 

“Mr. Janson has committed a very serious 
error of judgment, my lord,” said the sailor 
shortly. “A few minhtes will see it repaired, I 
hope.” 

“But, good gracious!” said I with some an- 
noyance, ‘ ‘you’re taking us out into that whirl- 
pool again just when we were comfortable. 
What on earth’s the matter?” 

Before he could answer me the first breath of 
the gale began to catch upon the sails. The 
sailors hauled upon the sheets to tauten them 
as he bawled his orders down, and the boats’ 
crews were beckoned back. As they slipped 
alongside, and the davit-hooks caught again 
upon the pulleys. Waller gave a great sigh of 
relief and turned to me again. 

“That iceberg ” he began, and at the 

words no explanation became necessary. 

We were both staring at it when again the 
edge of it began to lift. But this time there 
was no return. Up, up, it soared, lifting its drip- 
ping flanks into the air, and the seas poured 
back from it in torrents. The waters boiled 
behind our stern, heaving as if in the bath of 
some gigantic -geyser. For one single moment 
we danced haltingly upon the turbulence, the 
wind fighting with all its strength upon our 
canvas against the under-currents that tore at 
our keel. Then, thank God, the gale was \dc- 
tor. We slid away from the grip of the back- 


BEFORE THE GALE 


127 


flow, out into the riot of the storm again. 
And behind us one of nature’s dramas was 
enacted awfully. With a roar and a thunder- 
ous crash the iceberg slanted, swayed, poised 
itself one motionless instant, and then rolled 
completely over, dashing its topmost summit 
into the heart of the deep, and, heaved up by 
its mighty fall, a huge wave rose and almost 
engulfed it. The great rollers came clamoring 
after our flying bark as if in vindictive dis- 
appointment for the escape of their nearly won 
prey. But their fury defeated them. Their 
crests thundered on our stern, and flung us 
with growing force out into the ocean, while 
behind us the berg slowly emerged among the 
tossing, to point new pinnacles toward the 
clouds. And out in the storm again we con- 
tinued our ceaseless race before the seas, flying 
anew down the long trail south, buffeted, tem- 
pest driven, but safe again by the favor of a 
brave sailor’s quick-witted knowledge. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE LEAPING OP THE WALL 

Another night of tempest succeeded, diversi- 
fied by stinging showers of hail and sleet. I 
believe neither captain nor mate left the bridge 
the whole night long, for the floe and berg be- 
gan to grow around us, tack as we would. 
But the deeper we got into the heart of the 
multitude of island ice, the less grew the force 
of the wind. I rose the next morning after a 
few hours’ restless slumber to find us floating 
gently in a calm, untroubled sea, while around 
us, as far as eye could reach, the white pack 
stretched in uneven masses to the horizon. 

We dawdled down the broad lanes of black 
water between, the little puffs of wind coming 
fitfully from behind the sheltering masses. Our 
range of vision got less and less as these in- 
creased in size, and about mid-day the sun 
came out gloriously, and Waller was able to 
take an observation. 

He came toward me, smiling doubtfully, after 
he had worked out his calculations in the little 
chart-room. 

“M. Lessaution will be enchanted, my lord,” 
said he. “We are within a few miles of our 
original starting-place. It is an extraordinary 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 129 

thing that we should have been driven baek 
so exaetly on the line we had come. I have 
only steered by the stars and dead reckoning.” 

“He may be pleased enough,” I answered, 
“but he’ll be entirely alone in his gratification. 
Do you mean to say we’ve got to wrestle back 
all those weary miles? What desperate luck ! — 
but just the usual kind that dogs my footsteps. 
Why, it’ll take weeks to do it sailing.” 

“I’m afraid it would,” agreed the captain, 
“and that’s why I have another proposal to 
make. Since we got among the ice, I have been 
interviewing Mr. Eccles. He thinks that if we 
were in a dead calm, that he could get the 
split of the prcpeller-shaft rivetted, and made 
tight enough for half-steam. I would suggest, 
my lord, that we lie to and let him have a 
try.” 

“But not in this ice,” I objected; “I don’t 
want a repetition of yesterday’s performance 
with a different climax. Suppose one of these 
great bergs turns turtle?” 

“I have thought of that,” replied Waller, 
“but I have a plan.' If you remember we were 
under the lee of some islands when we left on 
our cruise north. I think I can find them again, 
my lord. We could probably make them an ice- 
free harbor.” 

“Why, certainly, then,” said I at once, glad 
to snatch at half a chance of curtailing a voy- 
age that could be nothing but misery for me. 
“Search them out, captain, and let Mr. Eccles 
do his utmost.” 

9 


130 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

He went back to the wheel, and began to 
nose our bows to starboard, taking advantage 
of every breath to slip delicately from pool to 
pool. 

About an hour later a thin column of smoke 
showed suddenly as we round'll the flank of a 
mighty berg, and there, a short mile to port, 
the familiar islands showed up, gray and hag- 
gard in the sunlight, as we had left them eight 
or nine stormy days before. 

Lessaution had joined me by now, his little 
eyes agleam with pleasure. As he recognized 
his surroundings, he turned and seized my hand. 

“This time we shall not fail,” he declaimed 
ecstatically. “Before twenty-four hours are 
over, I shall have scaled the cliffs that keep 
the mystery of the South. I — Emil Saiger Les- 
saution — I proclaim it.” 

“My good sir,” I said, “you’ll have to be 
quick about it. We only stay here for repairs. 
You don’t mean to say you imagined we were 
still pursuing our quest? You certainly are a 
pretty sanguine personage, if you did.” 

“M. de Heatherslie,” replied the little man 
with dignity, “do you think that I have such 
little consideration for the distressed ladies of 
this party, that I would keep them a moment 
longer than necessary from returning where 
they can obtain what is needful for their com- 
fort? No. But I have questioned the good 
Eccles, who assures me that not less than forty- 
eight hours will be necessary to effect his work 
upon his engines. By then I shall have accom- 


THE LEAPING OP THE WALL 


131 


plished my desire, and will be able to show you 
such proofs that after we have landed the la- 
dies at the Falklands, you will retrace your 
course here and pursue this adventure with 
me. But to think that I wish to inconvenience 
the ladies by a single instant !— I who worship 
the sex from the bottom of my heart!” and he 
twirled his little mustaches fiercely. 

I did not attempt to answer these chivalric 
sentiments, and we drifted into other by-ways 
of conversation amicably enough. The Racoon 
wound along the irregular canals amid the 
pack, and finally swung under the overhanging 
shadow of the summits. 

The isles were high and sugarloaf-like, with 
great hollows on the flank that faced the shore, 
cliffs not a mile away. We threw the lead in 
the channel between them and the cliff wall, 
and about the centre found fourteen fathoms. 
Here we dropped anchor. 

Great lean rocks ran up from the water’s 
edge in buttressing ribs, crowning the gaunt 
summits. Here and there deep rifts showed in 
their sides. Curious snake-like twistings wound 
about them. Scales of molten stones lapped 
over and about each other wherever a resting- 
place was found. It did not need the black 
column of smoke that pillared up into the sky 
to inform me that these were volcanoes. 

That day was given up to tidying the ship, 
lashing up what had run adrift of our various 
impedimenta about the saloon and smoke- 
room, and making things ship-shape generally. 


132 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


About noon the ladies appeared, bright, 
smiling, and cheerful. Gwen met me with the 
friendliest interest and unconcern. She was 
dressed in a neat skirt of sail-cloth, supplied by 
the carpenter, or rather the material for the 
same. She and her sister, I found, had been 
fashioning these in the privacy of their cabins, 
the dresses in which they came aboard being 
practically ragged pulp. They had wound thin 
strips of blanket about their shoulders most 
becomingly, and now wore these impromptu 
toilets before us by no means abashed, and 
with the certainty of producing a good impres- 
sion undisturbed upon their faces. 

We hastened to congratulate them upon their 
appearance. 

They bowed their thanks, and began to ply 
us with unceasing questions. They were full of 
curiosity about their whereabouts, and their 
chances of a speedy return to civilized regions. 
I assured them that no efforts of mine should 
be wanting to swiftly bring them back to the 
known world at the earliest opportunity, but 
explained the situation with regard to the 
engine. 

Gwen flashed a look at me I hardly under- 
stood. 

“You seem anxious to get rid of us,” she said. 
“Is our dishevelled appearance too much for 
you? We’ll endeavor not to obtrude our society 
upon you more than necessary.” 

She looked so adorable as she said it, with 
the little curls just leaning down her forehead 


THE LEAPING OE THE WALL 133 

to peep into her blue eyes, that I could have 
seized her in my arms then and there, and 
dared Denvarre to so much as think of her 
again. As things were, being at the end of the 
nineteenth century, and not in the middle of the 
tenth, I smiled apathetically, and answered 
with as much emotion in my voice as there is 
in a phonograph: 

“It must be very uncomfortable for you, I 
fear. No clothes, no luxuries, no anything.” 

“Neither Vi nor I are made of Italian 
glass,” she answered quaintly, “and mother’s 
tougher than she looks. Truth to tell, I was 
getting bored on the yacht. This sort of thing 
suits me excellently — I adore adventure. But 
I’m sorry, of course, if our coming has put you 
about,” and she smiled again, happily. 

I suppose it is the nature of the sweetest of 
women to be merciless at times. I reflected 
this in excuse as I gazed seawards without 
finding an answer, and thrusting back the 
words that came bubbling to my lips. The 
wretchedness must have been apparent in my 
face, for she suddenly changed the conversation 
as we strolled forward. 

“So you’re no longer Captain Dorinecourte?” 

“Alas, no,” said I forgetfully. 

She turned quickly to look at me with sur- 
prise. 

“Good gracious ! Lord Heatherslie, aren’t you 
glad to have the title?” 

“I only meant,” I stammered, “that there 
have been many responsibilities and — er — disap- 


134 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

pointments accumulating for me since I suc- 
ceeded.” 

“But surely that’ll soon be over,” she queried. 
“It’s only a matter of lawyer’s business, is it?” 

“They’re terrible people when they get you in 
their hands,” said I vaguely. “But tell me how 
you have enjoyed your trip so far.” • 

She looked back at me very straight. “I told 
you when we left London I shouldn’t enjoy it, 
and I can’t honestly say I have. The monot- 
ony got to be terrible.” 

I had meant all references to what had hap- 
pened in London to be forgotten. I did not 
think it kind to refer to them again in this out- 
spoken way. 

“But — but surely Denvarre and — and Gar- 
licke made it pleasant for you,” I hazarded. 
“It must have made it awfully nice for you 
having them all the time.” 

“Of course they have been attentive, if that’s 
what you mean,” she said, with a slightly con- 
tenjptuous inflection in her voice. “But one 
can get tired of even undiluted attention. I’m 
sure I’ve done my best to quarrel with Lord 
Denvarre several times, but he’s far too polite.” 

I didn’t know what to think. Did she openly 
mean to give me to understand that she had 
accepted Denvarre for the position? Or were 
they simply indulging in the luxury of their 
first quarrel? Or was it just her off-hand way 
of speaking of him? I found no answer. 

“Now, if we’d only had the prophetic instinct 
and known that you were going to start on 


triE LEAPING OF THE WALL 135 

this delightful trip, we should have waited and 
come with you. You’d have invited us, 
wouldn’t you?” 

I smiled to myself as I reflected that Lady 
Delahay would have found an extremely polite 
but explicit refusal to any such proposal. But 
I answered courteously: 

“It would have been too great a privilege. 
But my luck never permits arrant good fortune 
like that to be mine.” 

She looked at me curiously, and sighed a lit- 
tle restlessly, turning away to watch the cloud 
of mollies that skipped about our stern. There 
was silence between us for a minute. 

‘T prefer captains to peers,” she said at last, 
with a little laugh. “I don’t think you’re 
improved.” 

“It’s a prejudice you’ll have to overcome, 

won’t you?” said I. “Denvarre but as I 

mentioned his name he came on deck, and spy- 
ing us, walked up and joined us. 

The two smiled into each other’s eyes pleas- 
antly enough, but — but something was want- 
ing. Gwen never had been what one would call 
a sentimental girl, though at times — but that 
was ages ago. I left them to stroll off together, 
while I marched forward again, musing over 
the very level-headed way in which she treated 
her engagement and her £anc6. For I had 
imagined she would look at the matter differ- 
ently. We had been such old — well, comrades, 
that I’d expected to be told of her happiness, 
and by her own lips too. It would have pre- 


136 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


vented all the sense of strangeness that had 
somehow got between us. I shouldn’t have 
whined or referred to old times — she must have 
known that. I could only repeat to myself that 
women were beyond my finite understanding, 
and continued to take a miserable and utterly 
useless pleasure in the fact that at any rate she 
did not worship the ground that Denvarre 
trod. 

Gerry was smoking a gloomy pipe over the 
stern, and I joined him. He kept his face 
studiously averted from mine, and I had to lay 
my hand upon his shoulder before I spoke. 

“Poor old chap,” said I sympathetically. 
“Have they broken it to you?” 

“The old woman has,” he answered, adding 
a crisp execration which should never be used 
in connection with a lady. 

“Well,” said I, trying to. look into his eyes, 
“it’ll soon be over, old man. If Eccles can get 
steam, we’ll be back at the Falklands in ten 
days’ time. And we must buck each other up,” 
I added, trying to be cheerful. 

“I didn’t think it of Vi,” burst out the poor 
lad with an air of desperate aggrievement. 
“Not that I believe she cares the flick of a 
finger for him now. It’s that old hag of a 
i mother that’s done it.” 

“My dear boy,” said I, “we mustn’t put too 
stupendous a value on our fascinations. Den- 
varre and his brother are good men all through. 
And you and I are detrimentals — or at any 
rate I only shave it by a short head,” I added, 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 


137 


as I thought of the collection which was to 
bring in a tidy trifle. 

Poor Gerry. He just let himself loose upon 
the word. He cursed wealth and all that 
wealth brings with a sudden burst of passion 
that I had never dreamed he was capable of. 
He railed at Lady Delahay ; he condemned the 
name of Garlicke to the lowest pit ; he anathe- 
matized every usage of polite Society and every 
useless luxury. that we are bred to consider a 
necessity, showing the aptest reasons for con- 
sidering them the true creators of every vice 
and cruelty that is perpetrated beneath the 
sun. He swore in a very storm of passionate 
bitterness, leaving no object of his hatred un- 
touched. He went into comminatory details 
which were almost superfluous. And I let him 
rave. 

For, mark me, there are masculine moods 
where oaths and curses are the equivalent of 
feminine tears, and in neither case should you 
attempt to restrain them if they are the cul- 
mination of some great tribulation. They 
sweep out the bitterness in their stream, and 
though the ache be left in the wound, it has no 
longer a poisoned smart. And that is why 
Gerry shook my hand a few minutes later, and 
let less haggard lines pervade his countenance, 
while he confessed himself a fool. And in this 
worthier frame of mind I led him aft, and into 
the conversation of his fellows. 

As the dusk drew down — and you must recol- 
lect it was nearly mid-summer in those latitudes. 


138 BEYOND THE GEEAT SOUTH WALL 


and the nights were but an hour or two long — 
we managed to get some sort of dinner. The 
cook evolved a meal which he would have con- 
sidered unbefitting his dignity at another time, 
but which we ate on our cracked plates with 
great appreciation. For the first time for over 
a week we fed at a steady table, and enjoyed 
the peaceable conversation of our companions. 
Gerry, under the influence of coffee and char- 
treuse, even rose to the lengths of chaffing poor 
little Lessaution. 

The latter had spent the afternoon in una- 
vailing effort. Supplied with a boat -and crew 
he had set forth to fend along the great rock 
wall which seemed to stretch unbroken to the 
horizon, seeking, but with an utter want of 
success, for a means of ascending the same. 
And the poor little chap was taking it most 
seriously. 

Gerry thought fit to twit him on his futile 
adventure, and he was furious as a trapped rat. 
It was suggested to him that the quest was, 
and ever would be, hopeless, and that we had 
better give it up before we all got cricks in our 
necks staring up precipices we were never des- 
tined to climb. We declared our conviction that 
we were in the wrong spot altogether — the 
responsibility for our position rested in the first 
place with the Professor, I should explain, who 
had worked out by some intricate scheme of his 
own the probable route the storm-driven May- 
ans must have taken — and that he must have 
entirely misjudged the wind, or the currents, or 


tHE LEAPING OP THE WALL 


139 


something. Finally, that there could not pos- 
sibly be anything worth seeing if he did hap- 
pen to claw up the barren crags. 

The little savant fell upon his adversary, foot, 
horse, and artillery. He demonstrated that he 
was a disgrace to the name of Englishman, and 
had of imagination no single jot. That it did 
not matter, in effect, what such an unsports- 
manlike rascal did think, for fortunately our 
destinies lay with me — the good earl, let it be 
understood — who would be guided in this mat- 
ter by the dictates of sense and practicality. 
He himself would only give up the quest with 
his breath, and staked his reputation on his 
success. Cowards might do and say what they 
pleased. Finally, in an access of irritation he 
flung from us to go on deck and compose his 
vehement mortification with a cigar, and to 
gaze hungrily at the cliffs which mocked him 
with cold white serenity. 

Small talk and amiability were the order of 
the hour. Induced by our fervent representa- 
tion, Gwen even went to the piano and enliv- 
ened these desolate solitudes with a song or 
two. We were settling into a thoroughly pleas- 
ant evening, though amongst us two hearts 
were still throbbing lonelily. 

Suddenly a shrill yell resounded from above. 
There was the sound of hurried footsteps on 
the companion, and Lessaution burst back into 
our midst. His eyes were agleam, his hair 
stuck up like quills in his excitement. He bel- 
lowed at us. 


140 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“The ice goes, the ice goes!” he hallooed. 
“It goes, it disappears, it draws itself off. The 
sea runs away. There will be nothing — nothing 
at all. You shall see. We sink to the bottom; 
no water shall remain at all. Name of a pipe ! 
what is to become of us?” 

Without exception we all jostled at his heels 
as he turned and fled up on deck again, even 
old Lady Delahay being carried away by the 
prevailing excitement, and when we all poured 
out of the companion-way, it was a strange 
sight and no mistake that met our gaze. 

The moon shone bright as day, almost, and 
lit up a scene of cold splendor, the like of which 
I have never seen equalled. But the strange- 
ness of the matter lay in this. There was not 
a breath stirring; indeed, a close, dense still- 
ness lay heavy over the sea, but the waters 
were pouring past our bows like a river in spate. 
They seethed against our sides like the rush of 
a mill-stream, purring and rippling oilily. 

On the bosom of the dark tide the floe-ice 
swirled along, crashing as it charged our stem, 
and butting at our timbers thunderously. Berg 
thrust at berg like the jostle round a street 
accident. The pack-ice split and worked in 
masses one against the other, lump grinding 
on lump. The crash of their striving was deaf- 
ening. And at the tail of this turmoil came 
open water unflecked by the slightest ripple, 
and pouring past our stern in a steady, un- 
faltering swirl. Comparing great things with 
small, it was exactly like the opening of a 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 


141 


lock-sluice, and for a moment, in my mind’s 
eye, the tangle of the bergs faded, and I thought 
of Cliveden Woods and the gay parasols upon 
the river. 

Our hands shook upon the deck-rails as we 
gaped upon this icy chaos and the hurtle of 
the floe. The roar of the jostling ice, the cease- 
less surge of the current against the bow, the 
black persistence of the tide flow — all these 
things seen under the glare — the scorching glare, 
I may almost call it — of this pitiless moonlight, 
had an appearance of horrible unreality. I 
pinched myself as it occurred to me that I 
might be dreaming, and felt the resultant pain 
with sorrow. 

The whole crew had mustered on deck, and 
were staring upon this wonder with all their 
eyes. I strode to Waller’s side and fairly had 
to bawl into his ear to make myself heard 
above the din of the fighting floes. 

“What is it?” I screamed. “What are we to 
do?” 

“Can’t say, my lord. Never saw the like be- 
fore. Nothing we can do as there’s no wind. 
Better get up anchor though,” and he beckoned 
to Janson. 

The donkey-engine sent a white puff or two 
up into the still air, and the capstan began 
to complain as the chains crept through the 
hawse-pipes. Eccles’s head appeared to an- 
nounce that one rivet was on the collar he had 
fixed to the riven shaft, and he could venture 
on twenty turns of the screw to the minute if 


142 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


virtually necessary. His offer was accepted by 
Waller with effusion, and the screw began to 
chum a slow, creamy wake upon the blackness. 
The last of the ice swung by and whirled sea- 
ward, the clamor of its striving melting into 
the sluggish beat of our lame propeller as we 
got way upon the boat. And thus we ran 
landward for a length or two to find speed 
before we turned with the heeling tide. 

Suddenly — swift as the cap of a' port-fire 
snaps — the white glare of the moonbeams red- 
dened, died, then leaped again to a flame glow. 
It wrapped the whole expanse of rock and 
water in a flood of crimson. The sea became 
blood. We spun round to face astern and see 
what this might be. We saw — as it seemed — 
a preposterous. Titanic travesty of a Crystal 
Palace firework exhibition. So near did the 
similitude run, that we listened almost with 
confidence for the following yawn of applause. 
The islands behind us were aflame with pyro- 
technic devices. 

They were swathed in a cloak of fiery mist, 
wherein great streams of falling fire darted 
headlong to the sea. On the summit of the 
central peak rose a monstrous tower of spum- 
ing, flaring, heaven-smiting flame, vomited forth 
as by convulsions from an inner furnace, and 
this roared with thunderous echoes in the very 
heart of the hill — echoes that sprang and smote 
themselves in deafening chorus from crag to crag, 
booming across the smooth surface of the flood 
that bore down upon the isles devouringly. 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 143 

Hell itself was spouting forth. On the crum- 
bling heights the flames danced in' wanton, mer- 
ciless hunger. They toyed in terrible mockery 
with their own reflection in the swift-tided sea. 
They shook with their fierce spasms the burst- 
ing rocks. Before them the granite dissolved 
into a very paste. And over all crept slowly, 
gently, irresistibly, a fog of rising steam, where 
the boiling lava met the ice-strewn ocean, 
wrapping the torn wounds in the cliff-side as 
in a soft lint upon their bleedings. Across this 
veil the shudders of the rending cliff played in 
ruddy reflections, rippling across it like search- 
light rays as the hot molten matter gouted 
from the crags. 

For a second or two no one spoke, dwelling 
silently upon the grim wonder of it. Then a 
sob of terror broke across the tension of the 
stillness, and Lady Delahay sank to the deck. 
I raised her quickly, and placed her in a deck- 
chair. Then I looked round me. 

On my right Gerry, Denvarre, and Lessaution 
were clutching the rail before them in stiff, con- 
strained attitudes. The responsive emotions 
worked across th^ir faces as they watched the 
travail of the peak. As some gaping fissure 
spued up a froth of vivid flame, their lips parted 
in automatic unison to the sundering stone. 
Vi Delahay, stretching an unconscious arm, 
groped for something tangible to rest upon, 
and found Gerry’s hand. One could trace the 
train of thought by which she buttressed her 
agitated soul in thu$ finding support for hei; 


144 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

body. Gerry remained unconscious of the honor 
done him. Garlicke and Janson, silhouetted 
against the red gleam of sea and fire, stood 
with mouths agape, hands on hips, and eyes 
that stared unwinkingly — intentness personi- 
fied. Waller and Rafferty, their grasp still upon 
the wheel, gazed over their shoulders into the 
crimson distance behind them, heedless of their 
charge, rigid as men paralyzed. The crew, dis- 
tributed each at his post where surprise had 
found and stiffened him, looked like so many 
mummies. Just in front of me. Lady Delahay, 
sunk upon her chair in a disordered heap, cov- 
ered her face with her palms. I was beginning 
to peer round me uneasily for the one face I 
missed. 

A gentle pressure upon my shoulder showed 
me Gwen at my side. She was facing the glare, 
one hand clenched upon her bosom, the other 
unknowingly poised upon my arm. Her little 
nostrils were dilated, her face was aglow, ex- 
citement was dancing in her eyes. She never 
turned or stirred as I edged closer, sliding my 
hand dishonorably under her palm. Thus stood 
we all, agape, waiting, staring, wondering. 

Suddenly the giant column swung sideways, 
rushed skyward again, and then twisted itself 
into knots and coronals of ravening fire. As 
if in agony it bowed and contorted itself sea- 
ward, and the roar of its anguish sped across 
the ripples toward us with the shock of an 
Atlantic gust. It was a bellow wrung from 
the tortured throat of the very earth. 


THE LEAPING OP THE WALL 145 

A sigh burst from Gwen’s lips, and her grasp 
tightened upon my thankful fingers. She turned 
to face me, and I could read the new-born ter- 
ror in her eyes. Her other hand she thrust 
with a repellent gesture towards the writh- 
ings of the crater, and rested her forehead ever 
so lightly upon the lapels of my coat to shut 
out the hideous sight. Being only a man and 
not a graven image my arm slipped into its 
appointed place. It clasped her waist of its 
own accord, though the wicked thrill that ran 
up it and settled very near my heart reminded 
me that I was exercising a right that was an- 
other’s. But there was no getting it away by 
then. 

Denvarre I could see still stood hypnotized 
into stillness with the rest of our company, 
who all kept to their rigid, constrained atti- 
tudes. Lessaution’s lips were beginning to 
twitch with words for which he could find no 
voice, and a low moan broke from Lady Del- 
ahay. Of those who dared to look, not one 
could remove his concentrated gaze. 

Another crash, sharp and strident as the 
crack of a thunde'rbolt, smote across the sur- 
face of the waters. It swelled with -^evilish 
crescendo into a roar that threatened to burst 
our ear-drums. They throbbed and palpitated 
to the limits of tension. A blare of yellow 
flame filled the horizon. The island peak seemed 
to leap bodily heavenwards, and the lower 
crags toppled and reeled swayingly. Streams 
of lava bubbled and boiled from a thousand 
10 


146 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


rifts and rendings of the rocks. The mass 
writhed like a tormented monster. A yet great- 
er cloud of steam arose, and through it the 
fierce conflagration played and twined itself, 
till all the sea and land seemed bathed in a 
fog of blood and fire. As the liquid stone was 
vomited out in splashes, it rattled in a hissing 
patter round us. The eternal turmoils of the 
lowest pit seemed loose. 

One more flightful shock and ear-splitting 
roar. Then a mountain seemed to grow upon 
the bosom of the deep. Black and awesome it 
rose under that flaming pall ; silent, dark, and 
threatening it swung itself up from ocean’s 
depths, screening from us by its awful stature 
the raging destruction behind. High and yet 
higher it mounted and swelled and rolled upon 
us, smooth and swart as midnight. Oily and 
crestless billows rippled and webbed across it in 
festoons. The lurid reflections gleamed upon it 
like the flicker of swords ashock. In a majest}- 
of resistless might it hung over us — a doom 
unavert able. 

As the first slope of the hill of waters slid 
beneath our keel I tore myself from my trance 
of fascination. I dashed forward and raised 
Lady Delahay. With a kick I burst open the 
door of the companion and thrust her through, 
turning desperately for Gwen. With the lurch 
of the rising deck I staggered, slipped, and fell 
backward. My shoulder caught the door and 
slammed it to. With an oath I scratnbled up tq 
clutch her fiercely. 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 


147 


The whole scene was bright before me as I 
turned. Every soul on board stood out in a 
clearness like the day. Against the mast stood 
Gerry, one arm round it, one round Vi’s waist, 
while before the two of them Garlicke and Les- 
saution had sprung, facing sternly the hill of 
death, jealously valiant in their pride of race. 
To the left Jans on and Denvarre still held the 
rail, staring aft with wide, fascinated eyes. 
Waller and Rafferty at the wheel stood ex- 
pectant, their shoulders squared to meet and 
give to the coming shock. The crew, distrib- 
uted here and there in two and threes, were 
bracing themselves against the deck-house, 
mast, or funnel. In the utter quiet the last few 
wreaths of steam from the engine died circling 
into the still air. 

Up, up we staggered, and little whirls and 
boils from the under-current shot creamy and 
foam-flecked to the surface. Up — still rising fast, 
as the billows broke suddenly from the calm, 
and chased each other over its heaving bosom. 
Up yet again, and the red glow of the volca- 
noes beat no longer upon the faces of the uncon- 
quered cliffs before us, but upon their very sum- 
mits, and upon fhe wide waste of emptiness 
behind. 

Then as the full surge of the reeling ridge of 
ocean swept us forward, the crown of the top- 
most rollers broke aboard. With a crash it 
roared white and foaming along our decks, and 
in a trice we were carried in a huddle of men 
Ifnd splintered spars into the deep bay of thQ 


148 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


forward bulwarks. There, bruised and speech- 
less, breathless, with limbs entwined in limbs, 
and ropes and timbers woven and splayed 
about our bodies, we lay helpless as kittens 
drowning in a bucket, and the ship shot for- 
ward upon the head of the great ridge-wave 
straight for the cruel precipice of granite. With- 
out a hope and stunned beyond struggling we 
waited for the final crash and oblivion. 

As we charged along that wild race into 
eternity, the great crags that five minutes be- 
fore had hung mockingly above our heads sank 
below us, and we rode high above their cring- 
ing heads. 

We realized as in a moment, that the growing 
bulk of billows would lift us cleanly over them. 
A hundred yards more at speed, and the cliffs 
were gone, and a broad wilderness of waters 
swarmed over their crannies, and into the rocky 
void beyond. As by a miracle the skirting 
waves that ran before us filled the dry plain, 
and with half the weight of the sea-torrent still 
behind us we shot out on to the bosom of this 
sudden lake. 

Like an arrow we swung across its turbid 
shallows, charging toward the far side, where it 
was bounded by a second terrace of sheer 
stone. The foremost waves smote the rock 
face full. Charging back, their defeated fury 
met and foamed around us, catching us before 
we reached the cruel reefs. The in-coming and 
out-flowing surges sprang together almost be- 
neath our keel, and we tossed and reeled from 


THE LEAPING OF THE WALL 


149 


one to the other in the final throb of the great 
convulsion. Then the fighting breakers spread 
abroad. Each spent its dying force upon its 
neighbor, and ere we could extract ourselves 
from the mass of wreckage that wedged us in 
below the bulwarks, the yacht was swinging 
masterless and idle upon a rippling, white- 
flecked lagoon, showing less turmoil than a 
mid-June day can raise on Windermere. 


CHAPTER X 

BEHIND THE BARRIER 

Gwen was unconscious as I lifted her, and a 
bruise showed red and staring on her white 
temple. I laid her gently against the bulwark 
and made a dash for the saloon. Lady Delahay 
lay in a dead faint at the stair-foot, slipping 
there, I supposed, after her unceremonious 
bundling through the door. I snatched the 
whiskey from the sideboard, laid the good lady 
on the sofa and raced on deck again. Gerry 
was on his feet, and the rest gathered them- 
selves out of the tangle one by one. Lessau- 
tion was the first to break silence. 

‘‘Behold,” he said triumphantly, “that we are 
on the top,” and he spread abroad his little 
arms like a glorified cock a-crow, revelling in 
the achievement of his hopes, and utterly ignor- 
ing the desperate result. 

I shoved him impatiently on one side to get 
back to Gwen again. She was leaning white- 
faced and motionless against the bulwark, and 
my heart gave a queer thump when I saw how 
still she lay. I put my arm around her, and 
ever so gently tilted a few drops of .spirit be- 
tween her lips. A sigh and a gasp broke from 
her, and the color began to pass back into her 


behind the barrier 


151 


cheeks. She opened her eyes, and looked at me 
dreamily. A satisfied little smile edged her 
mouth, and she settled back against my shoul- 
der with a murmur of content, nestling into the 
encirclement of my arm as happily as if I was 
Denvarre’s self. 

A blow fell upon my back, and I found Gerry 
standing over me. 

“Give it me,” said he shortly, and I handed 
over the flask. He dashed across to Vi again 
and began to dose her energetically, not desist- 
ing till she coughed desperately and motioned 
him away with a weak gesture of her hand. 
The whiskey began to circulate among the 
others rapidly. 

“What’s happened?” said Gwen’s low voice 
from my shoulder, and she opened her eyes 
again wearily. “Ah, I remember — the wave — 
and the rocks and — and all that.” Her voice 
died away indistinctly as her eyes closed. 

“It’s all right,” I whispered into the little ear 
that shone so rosy pink against the dark sod- 
den cloth of my smoking suit, “we’re all here. 
Nothing’s amiss with anybody.” 

Her hand fluttered out to me, and caught and 
felt my arm as if to satisfy herself that one at 
least was there with whole body. 

“Mother and Vi?” she questioned. 

“Right as the mail,” quoth I cheerfully, “and 
Denvarre too,” I added circumspectly, though I 
don’t know why she should have been shy to 
ask for him. 

“Ah, Lord Denvarre, and Mr. Garlicke, and 


152 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


the Professor, and Mr. Carver, and every- 
body?” 

“Everybody,” I agreed, “though we haven’t 
exactly called names yet. Nothing but bruises, 
as far as I can tell.” 

“I’m — I’m keeping you from doing things,” 
she said suddenly, scrambling to her feet, “and 
I ought to look after mother.” She tottered as 
she leaned against me, and I — well, of course I 
had to hold her up. Then I heard Denvarre’s 
deep voice at my elbow. 

“Can I be of any use?” he asked, with extra- 
ordinary politeness, and I got a look between 
the eyes which told me I was taking more than 
mere courtesy demanded. 

She smiled sweetly at him, took his arm, and 
began to step uncertainly toward the saloon. 
Then she stopped suddenly and turned toward 
me again. 

“Thank you,” she said, looking over her 
shoulder, and went on. But I never heard the 
words said quite like that, I think, for I could 
have kissed her feet for them, as well as have 
cursed her for a heartless coquette. 

As they disappeared I began to look up the 
others. Rafferty and Waller were blinking like 
owls, and slapping themselves, inquiringly. 
They had been tumbled off the bridge like shot 
pheasants, and had been flung down upon us as 
we spluttered and squirmed among the splint- 
ers. What with the fall and hitting hard wood 
they were pretty considerably knocked out of 
time. Lessaution was gesticulating wildly, as- 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


153 


serting that he had swallowed salt-water by 
the hectolitre. Forgetting to close his aston- 
ished mouth when the wave struck us, he had 
engulfed it to the full extent of his capacity, 
and he condemned it as the most poisonously 
cold draught that had ever been forced upon 
him. But even this had failed to subdue his 
jubilation at having attained to the heights of 
his desire. Garlicke, who had been stunned and 
over-dosed with neat whiskey, was coughing 
like a sick sheep, and the sympathetic Janson 
was slapping him on the back. Poor Eccles 
was being slowly extracted from below the 
bowsprit with a broken collar-bone, but was 
bearing up against his affliction with a Scotch 
impassiveness and a fat spirit-flask. He, it ap- 
peared, was the only item in the list of casu- 
alties. 

He and his underlings crept back to the 
stoke-hole and reported it three feet deep in 
water, but the fires not wholly drowned. The 
shaft was still workable, and by a little stirring 
of the clinker they gave us enough steam to 
stay our vague circlings on our lake. We 
backed, as we drifted shoreward, and swung 
the lead. We found twenty fathoms. So there 
in the centre of that new-formed sea-pond we 
anchored, amidst an arid expanse of rock- 
bound desolation, and left discussion of our 
unpleasant situation for drier circumstances. 
All hands slipped below to find such changes of 
raiment as had been left unsoaked, and to 
rectify if possible some of the more desperate 


154 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


confusion of saloon and cabin. And thus ended 
that wondrous half-hour of terror and up- 
heaval. 

The dawn was breaking when we reassem- 
bled on deck to look round us. Over the cliff- 
top behind us we could still see the island vol- 
cano belching smoke and steam, but it was 
half the height it had stood the night before. 
The lake on which we floated was about a 
mile long and half-a-mile broad. It was bound- 
ed on the landward side by huge basaltic 
crags that shot up ragged and desolate against 
a steel-blue sky. 

To the right a rocky plain spread flat and un- 
broken for a mile or so, terminating in uneven, 
boulder-strewn slopes. These were gashed and 
riven in all directions by the clefts that ran 
blaek and shadowy into the depths of the hill. 
To the left was a giant mountain, and down 
its flanks crept river-like a stupendous glacier, 
our lake lapping its blue crevasses at the nearer 
end. The water completely hid any moraine 
there might have been before the irruption of 
the whelming wave. Between us and the tops 
of the sea-cliffs was a narrow strand of rock, 
covered with the silt of the retreating waters. 
Among the litter the bodies of one or two sea- 
lions and seals were visible, their fur shining 
wet and glossy in the light of the rising sun. 
On the shore beneath the far cliff a whale was 
stranded, thwacking his huge tail resoundingly 
upon the boulders as he vainly tried to thrust 
himself back into his native element. Around 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


155 


US on every side great masses of sea-fowl swung 
and wreathed themselves in white circles, filling 
the air with their cries and their droppings, 
pouncing ever and again on the dead fish and 
garbage that covered the surface, fighting and 
howking clamorously at each other for the 
spoil. 

It did not need a critical examination to 
show that we were in a trap. The wave had 
borne us over the cliffs a hundred feet at least 
above tide-level, and now they stood implacable 
between us and any chance of an escape sea- 
ward. Here we were in a six-hundred ton 
ship afloat in less than six hundred acres of 
water. It was not an exhilarating prospect. 

Naturally I turned to Waller in this seeming 
impasse. Of all the good men who walk this 
uncertain earth of ours, I know none who in- 
spire confidence to the same extent as do those 
who go down to the sea in ships. Their pro- 
fession demands that they should briskly and at 
uneven intervals extract themselves — or, more 
often others— from the tightest of tight places. 
They fight the outrageous tactics of the wind 
and sea with happy confidence. They defeat 
these eternal adversaries with no sort of pride 
in their victories, but with painstaking com- 
pleteness. And when occasionally to them 
comes the overthrow, they meet it with a 
cheer. To us of the land-lubbing profession 
they are, in their supreme cocksureness, as lit- 
tle gods. 

“Well, my lord,” said the captain succinctly. 


io6 beyond the great south VVALt 


“it’s evident that before this southern summer’s 
over we must send word to the Falklands. 
The ice will close down on us in March. We 
can’t move the ship. We must send a boat. It 
is a question of finding a place to launch it. 
As far as one’s eye goes there’s nothing but a 
precipice for miles. We could perhaps arrange 
pulleys to let the cutter down, but it would be 
difficult. It would be easier to take her a few 
miles on rollers. I submit that the crying ne- 
cessity at the present moment is an outlet to 
the sea.” 

“Well, then, of course we must find one,” said 
I cheerily, “and to find one we must get ashore. 
Let’s have the launch out as soon as possible,” 
and I walked away to announce his views to 
the others. 

We breakfasted before we set out, while they 
were setting the boat afloat and getting up 
steam in her tiny boiler. The ladies had not 
yet reappeared, so we were all able to voice 
our emotions and hazard our opinions without 
fear of making them uneasy. Lessaution as 
usual led the conversational melee. 

His knowledge of seismic effects and huge 
waves produced thereby seemed intimate. He 
demonstrated that it was an honor to have 
been associated in this astounding upheaval, 
whence few had formerly returned alive. He 
cited instances from Portugal to Polynesia of 
similar disasters, giving gruesome categories of 
the demolished. He went into details tha: 
turned us from our food. It was only by the 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


157 


show of a universal unbelief in his- theories, and 
a consequent rise of his sentiments to higher 
planes of passion, that we finally found quiet. 
He departed on deck furious with our want of 
intelligence, which he designated as of the most 
hog-like. We found him all agog for adventure, 
though still contemptuous, when we rejoined 
him. 

The little oil dinghy was snapping and fuss- 
ing away by this time, and Gerry, Denvarre, 
and I tumbled into her with the Frenchman, 
and were set ashore in five minutes. First of 
all we ran up the slope between us and the cliff 
to look seawards. 

But for the steam-cloud that hung heavily 
over the ruined islands six miles away, and for 
the floating bodies of a few seals and smaller 
whales, there was no sign of the upheaval of 
the night before. The sea was lapping sleepily 
against the ice-smoothed rocks below, gurgling 
in the crannies, and the sun glittered on a still 
and radiant surface. 

A northwest wind was just beginning to 
touch the glassy surface, and the floe was 
swinging back almost imperceptibly toward 
the cliffs, returning from the distance to which 
it had been carried by the outsuck. Terns and 
kittywakes were dipping backward and for- 
ward with shrill cries, hovering and quarrel- 
ling over the lumps of dead fish and other 
remnants of the turmoil. Here and there a 
sea-lion rose out of the depths to roll and play 
with soft splashings in the sunshine, or to stop 


158 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


and stare up the cliffs at us w ith stupid, inno- 
cent eyes. 

The atmosphere was keen and clear as a win- 
ter’s day in the Engadine, and we could follow 
the circling unbroken line of cliffs to the far 
horizon. There was an exhilarating nip in the 
air, though the sunlight that poured back from 
rock and sea made it quiver hazily. It was a 
glorious day, and would have been an uplifting 
one if things had not gone so perversely and 
entirely wrong. For instead of enjoying this 
heavenly sunshine on the yacht’s deck in lazy 
contentment, we had to tramp weary miles in 
search of what might be unattainable. 

There was no sort of doubt but that we were 
in a serious fix. The continuous and implac- 
able wall of rock stretched, for all we could 
tell, to the world’s end. There was no escape 
for us except by sea, and we had no proper 
means of launching out into the deep. We 
were as surely held, perched up as we were 
on these desolate summits, as if we had been 
behind the bars and bolts of a prison. 

We walked about four miles along that re- 
morseless line of crags. Never a break did we 
find, never a vestige of a shallow at its foot. 
Look where we would was green water un- 
plumbable, and not so much as the suspicion 
of any shoal that could give us launching room 
for a boat. 

We returned silent and depressed, the full sig- 
nificance of our plight just working into our 
minds. Even Lessaution, though he really con- 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


159 


cerned himself little about a departure, which 
he would have willingly deferred a month at 
least, was affected by the general dejection, 
and gave up attempting to instruct us further 
on our surroundings. Gerry and I added this 
new weight to our desperation phlegmatically, 
feeling that the cup of our misery had been full 
before, and might, for all we cared, run over 
unstayed. The four of us had much the effect 
of hounds slinking home out of covert, having 
been left therein during the run of the season. 

We slouched down the shores of our little 
lake, and somehow the ship seemed to have 
come nearer since we started. How or why 
Waller had considered it necessary to move her, 
I could not conceive. Nor could we find the 
great boulder by which we had landed, though 
we felt sure that we had followed the same di- 
rection to it from the cliff-top. 

We waved listlessly with our handkerchiefs 
for the launch to be sent to us, waiting at the 
water’s edge there while. Denvarre was still 
grubbing about among the rocks farther up 
the stones. Suddenly he gave a yell. 

“Why, the water’s sunk,” he bawled. “Here’s 
the rock we landed on. The absurd lake’s run- 
ning away.” 

He was standing forty or fifty yards above 
us and we ran and joined him. As we looked 
higher up the sloping shore, we recognized 
what had been the water’s edge when we land- 
ed. There was no sort of doubt that the new- 
formed lake was leaking out again rapidly, 


160 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


and that our ship would very shortly be in a 
regular dry-dock. We went on to consider that 
if the yacht took ground on that flat, rocky 
bottom she would careen over, and probably 
smash in her sides. We should be left homeless 
amid that desolation — a pretty kettle of fish. 

As soon as the dinghy had snorted across 
and taken us aboard, we sought Waller and 
explained to him our discovery. Occupied with 
other matters he had never noticed the shrink- 
age, and had the lead hove at once. It gave six 
fathoms less than before, but — what was more 
satisfactory — showed fourteen still remaining. 
We knew the sea-level could not be more than 
fifty feet below us, so unless the water was 
draining away into some unimaginable gulf, 
there would remain thirty feet or more for our 
good ship to float in. 

This was cheering in some ways, though it 
detracted in no wise from the hopelessness of 
our situation from the point of view of a pos- 
sible rescue. 

We resolved therefore that at earliest dawn 
a select expedition should set forth to carry in- 
quiry further into the land, taking with it arms, 
food, and the necessary accoutrement for two 
days at least, that every portion of the sea- 
ward face of the cliffs might be examined for 
the greatest distance to which we could trans- 
port a boat. The party was to consist of Den- 
varre, Gerry, one sailor — name of Parsons — 
and myself. Lessaution we judged it best to 
leave, as we felt sure that his build did not 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


161 


fit him for prolonged exercise across the boul- 
der-strewn confusion of this land of desolation. 
We felt, too, that he could amuse himself in 
delving around the foreshore of the lake, where 
antiquities were just as probable as further 
west; we said nothing to him of our project. 
Garlicke preferred to stay and “protect the la- 
dies,” as he put it, and Waller’s business was 
on his ship. We four therefore spent the after- 
noon in dozing, to make up for the exertions 
of the night, and to prepare for the toils of 
the morrow. We rose for dinner, and endeav- 
ored to pass a cheerful evening, but Gerry took 
his cigar on deck at an early opportunity, un- 
able to sustain the conflict with his natural 
passions which the sight of Garlicke ’s atten- 
tions to Yi provoked, and I fought down my 
overmastering desire to throttle Denvarre, with 
a stolid determination that made me extremely 
unsociable, and a most apathetic conversa- 
tionalist. So uneasily the after-dinner period 
passed, and we turned in to dream of the un- 
dying fires of Erebus in collusion with the out- 
bursting of an uncontrolled and ever-growing 
Niagara. 

Now behold us next morning setting forth 
into the unknown, with a great waving of 
handkerchiefs from the good folk on deck. We 
crossed the moat — as I christened it — scrambled 
ashore, and started along the incline of bare 
rock that led toward the cliff-tops. The going 
after the first half-mile was desperately rough. 
Great slab-like boulders, round and smooth- 
11 


162 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


faced, lay about in gigantic masses, and the 
clefts between them were wide and deep. La- 
boriously we hopped from one to the other, 
getting many a bruise and thump as we slid 
upon their glassy surfaces. The slope that led 
up from the lake edge to the western hills was 
like a great moraine. It ran to the foot of 
ranged rocks that buttressed the lower shoul- 
ders of the peak. The quantities of pebbles 
were arranged in irregular ridge and furrow 
formation, growing in size and smoothness as 
we approached the cliff-face. \Ye proceeded ex- 
cessively slowly; half an hour’s toil took us a 
bare mile. 

As we paused and looked round, wiping our 
brows, a yell came sharply through the still 
air, and an extraordinary object staggered into 
our vision. Round the corner of basalt which 
hid the ship from us emerged a thing like a 
monstrous beetle. With frantic gesticulation it 
beckoned us to stop. It was with some diffi- 
culty we recognized the familiar form of Les- 
saution, for he had done his best to disguise 
it. His peaceful person had assumed the fan- 
tastic presentment of a mediaeval buccaneer. 
According to his lights, I suppose, it was the 
strictly correct habiliment of the explorer. 

A blue cap, something like that assigned to 
statues of Liberty, dangled from his poll, flop- 
ping with studied abandon over his left ear. 
He wore a baggy Norfolk jacket, with pockets 
erupting all over it like sartorial warts; huge 
gray worsted stockings came over his knees 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


163 


and half-way up his thighs, and immense brown 
boots were laced over his skinny little calves. 
In his hand was an axe ; round his waist was 
a belt ; from this dangled a sheath-knife, flanked 
by an enormous Colt’s revolver; above his left 
shoulder flaunted the muzzle of a shot-gun, the 
butt of which seriously incommoded the play 
of his right elbow. He stood forth the pirate 
of cheap fiction confessed. 

He was scrambling over the boulders frantic- 
ally. Before he had traversed twenty yards of 
the uncertain footing of the moraine he fell 
upon his face. He found the position so much 
to his liking that he remained on hands and 
knees, squirming clatteringly over the glassy 
pebbles. We felt that Gerry was by no means 
inapt in likening him to a caterpillar on eggs. 
We sat down to smile, take our breath, and 
let him overtake us. This he did in the space 
of about ten minutes, grunting like an over- 
driven cab-horse, glowing with perspiration, 
and begrimed with unutterable dirt. He sank 
with a bump of exhaustion upon a handy slab 
of granite and began his reproaches. 

“You would leave behind your little Lessau- 
tion?” he queried accusingly. “Me, who pant, 
do you see, to gaze upon the wonders of the 
land. Where had you the heart to treat him 
so?’^ and his brown eyes directed an upbraid- 
ing glance upon us that might have melted the 
very stones. 

We explained that it was his comfort that 
had been our first thought, and that we had 


164 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

deemed the way too long and the work too 
arduous for him. We hinted that the ladies 
would experience a vivid desolation deprived 
of his company. We had believed that he 
would have found ample room and opportunity 
for research in the immediate vicinity of the 
vessel. He was not to be appeased. 

“No,” he replied; “when they told me that 
you had set forth, and unknown to me, I asked 
myself how I had offended you. Is it, I said, 
that there can be jealousy between two nations 
who share the responsibilities of civilization? 
Do they wish that France shall not have her 
part in this adventure? I could not believe it. 
I call for the boat. I accoutre myself” — and he 
pointed with pride to the armory that swayed 
about him, “and I follow with great speed. 
Let me offer my comradeship in this expedition. 
Give me my part in j^our perils,” and he flung 
out his arms entreatingly. 

How could one refuse a request so touchingly 
put forth? We welcomed him to our company 
with effusion, though vdth inward annoyance. 
We felt that our progress would of necessity 
be a great deal tardier in consequence, but in 
mere charity and courtesy nothing else was to 
be done. 

He further imparted the information that he 
was not so young as when he was of the fore- 
most runners of the Lycee, and that his little 
heart was going pit-a-pat. In effect, with this 
so great racing it quivered like an automobile. 
But of what consideration was this when he 


BEHIND THE BARRIER 


165 


was once again amongst his dear rascals, and 
accompanying them in their valiant purpose of 
research? One minute to regain the even tenor 
of his pulses, and then, forward ! Let us press 
on to victories. 

We counselled him bluntly to keep his breath 
for pure purposes of locomotion, and after a 
slight rest set forward again to our monoto- 
nous stumblings among the endless reaches of 
heaped stone. 


CHAPTER XI 

A GLACIER CAVE AND WHAT LAY THEREIN 

An hour’s labor saw us well over the moraine, 
and beginning to worm our way into the deep 
clefts that gaped in the flanks of the hillside. 
Heretofore we had kept rigidly to the neighbor- 
hood of the shore, but now we had to shift 
our course inland. The mountain breasted up 
to the water’s edge sheer and inaccessible. We 
could see no possible chance of a break in its 
surface for miles. 

There was nothing to do but cross the ridge 
before us, and take up our quest on the far 
side. If we found the way rough and danger- 
ous, and deemed it impossible to carry over the 
sections of our cutter, we should have to re- 
turn and recommence our quest along the 
eastern shores. But as far as we had gone 
there was nothing impracticable for men taking 
fair precautions and proceeding slowly, though 
at times the ground was steep and broken. 

Before us a long, deep, shadowy gorge cut 
into the heart of the mountain. It led upward 
toward a narrow pass that dented into the 
crown of the ridge. This gave hope of a mod- 
erately easy passage to the other side. About 
half-a-mile in front of us the canon narrowed. 


A GLACIER CAVE 


1Q7 


and the cliffs grew together, nearly overhang- 
ing in parts. 

The going, however, was better. At times 
the path was as smooth as a paved street. 
Here and there enormous blocks of granite were 
ranged alongside it. They were curiously 
square, having almost the finished look of 
building material. 

Gerry was the first to remark upon these 
things. 

“There never was a better imitation of an 
Edinburgh street,” said he wearily. “These 
cobbles are as hard and even as can be.” 

They certainly were set together in regular 
fashion, and we examined them inquisitively, 
wondering what geological freak had brought 
about their ordered formation. Lessaution 
clapped his hands and shouted. 

“Aha, my friends, aha! What have you to 
say now? A boulevard, is it not? Who made 
this road, my little Iscariots? Did it make it- 
self out of nothing? Did the stones roll them- 
selves together? Tell me that, my braves,” and 
he grunted triumphantly, waggling his hands 
at the rows of measured blocks. 

“I think,” said I irritabl^q “that any people 
who put them here with a set purpose must 
have been of a race of engineering idiots. What 
in the name of wonder could a road be doing 
here, leading to nowhere in particular out of 
this chaos? It’s simply a geological freak. 
Some stratum has slipped.” 

“It is a road, I tell you,” shrieked the savant , 


168 BEYOND THE GEEaT SOUTH WALL 


“a road, a road, a road ! It has been begun to 
fetch stones upon — this stone that we see ready 
cut for moving. Is it that you are blind? Can 
you not see?” 

I had no wish to delay the expedition further 
while he lectured us on this supposititious dis- 
covery. I answered him patiently. 

“My dear Professor,” said I, “let us agree 
that it is a grand staircase, or anything else 
you like to think it. But for goodness’ sake 
let us get on. What we are looking for is not a 
highway, but a beach — unless you would like 
to stay and investigate the matter by yourself,” 
I added hopefully. 

He came along muttering many things. He 
was understood to say that some people had 
no more enthusiasm than a slug; that the 
British nation at large was utterly wanting in 
verve and spirituality; that in our poor com- 
pany his intellect roamed desolate and compan- 
ionless. But we regarded him not, striding up- 
ward till we reached the point where the 
canon narrowed and darkened over us. 

This defile continued for about a quarter of a 
mile, and along it still ran the curious effect as 
of a cobbled road. At the end of the neck we 
could see that the valley divided, one half con- 
tinuing up the pass, the other striking away 
sharply to the right. 

We reached the sharp spur of the mountain 
that hid the second valley from our sight- We 
rounded the corner, all five of us abreast. As a 
single man we stopped in our surprise. 


A GLACIER CAVE 


169 


Almost to our feet a mighty glacier rolled, 
clear, clean, and blue as the firmament, still 
and cold as the shadow of death. A gasp went 
up simultaneously from each throat as we 
stepped so swiftly and unknowingly into the 
presence of this mighty ice-river, standing out 
in such lonely whiteness and solemnity ; for an 
appreciable moment no one spoke. 

Then came a shrill yell from our irrepressible 
friend. He pointed up the side of the new val- 
ley, his little eyes fairly blazing in their sockets. 

“There, there!” he howled, “as I told you, it 
is there. Name of all the names, let us climb,” 
and he scrabbled at the smooth rock face that 
fenced the entrance of the far canon, plucking 
at it like a caged squirrel. 

We followed the direction of his forefinger, 
and I will confess that my first feeling was one 
of desperate annoyance, for on the edge of the 
ice, standing out yellow-gray against the blue 
crevices, was something uncommonly like the 
wall of a ruined or half-finished building. Noth- 
ing could explain this away, and it seemed pos- 
sible that Lessaution might have some ground 
for his fancies. Any wonder or interest I might 
have felt in this discovery was swallowed by 
the irritation I felt in remembering what scorn 
I had always thrown upon Gerry’s and Lessau- 
tion’s imaginings, which now might well prove 
to be borne out by facts. I gaped upon the 
phenomenon therefore distrustfully, as if it 
might be, perchance, a put-up hoax. 

The Frenchman was still extended upon the 


170 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ice-planed rocks, wriggling like a worm, but ad- 
vancing not at all. Gerry seized one of his out- 
stretched legs and gave him a lusty shove. The 
ungrateful little wretch never so much as of- 
fered him thanks or a tug in return. He gath- 
ered himself up, and tore across the confusion 
of the ice-milled stones like a lapwing. 

Parsons respectfully offered a back, as at 
leap-frog. We took ad vantage of it to scale the 
tiny precipice, and follow in the savant’s tracks. 
The slow-blooded Mr. Parsons, after eyeing the 
unaided ascent that would be his if he pursued 
us, sat himself down beside the baggage, and 
lit his pipe with solemn content. The rest of us 
joined Lessaution beside the building, or what- 
ever it might be. 

It was supposedly the rear of a house, and 
ended with great abruptness where the glacier 
began. There was no roof, merely three stone 
walls built of excessively solid blocks — not nat- 
ural, but evidently quarried — and at the glacier 
side it broke off suddenly, as if beaten down by 
some sudden shock. Inside the walls was noth- 
ing but a little heap of dust. 

Lessaution ran round and round it and in 
and out of it like a monkey exploring a new 
cage. He chattered and swore away to him- 
self, paying no sort of attention to our doings. 
It was left to Gerry to make the next discovery. 
He was standing gaping down into the cre- 
vasses of the glacier edge. 

“Great Heavens!” he ejaculated suddenly. 
“Look here, you chaps.” 


A GLACIER CAVE 


171 


Ready for any further astonishment, we 
flocked to him greedily. He pointed to the un- 
sullied sides of the ice- wall, and therein we saw 
a wonderful sight. Plain to the view, as if 
cased in a crystal casket, were more huge 
blocks of stone, the ice arching over them 
transparently. Most evidently they were the 
masonry that had formed the facade of this 
building, which the glacier must have in part 
destroyed. They had been swept down into a 
sort of bay or basin in the rock. In this hol- 
low they were only covered by a shallow of the 
mighty river of ice, and it had rolled its slow 
current over them for centuries. But lying, as 
they did, beneath its sluggish current, they had 
remained flung up as in a sort of backwater, 
and free from injury. And here lay the wonder 
of the thing. For carved on these great mono- 
liths were a hundred cabalistic figures in myriad 
combinations, every one, as we could clearly 
trace, formed of the same symbol that figured 
in my wonderful scroll. 

When you are beaten, the grace of a neat sur- 
render will turn tongues from your defeat. I 
went up to Lessaution with an outstretched 
hand and an ingratiating smile. He greeted me 
triumphantly, and with many joyous outcries, 
but I will say was handsome enough to forego 
all superior airs of patronage. He made no 
allusion to my previous scepticism. 

I told myself that, in some ways, this dis- 
covery was a great misfortune as matters had 
now turned out. True enough, we had come 


172 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


here to investigate the possible remains of such 
a race as was now conclusively proved to have 
existed. Had matters gone as we intended we 
should have been gratified beyond measure at 
this result. But as circumstances were, the dis- 
covery of a suitable shore for launching our 
boat was preferable to all the antiquities south 
of the equator. I ventured on a modified 
resume of these sentiments, but the Professor 
snapped at me like an angry parrakeet. 

‘‘What!” he exploded. “Shall we leave these 
fine and perfect palaces? Are we to desert them 
to search for a beach — a muddy bank of sand? 
No, it is not possible. Here we can delve into a 
buried past, and explore the relics of a royal 
race. I plant myself here, and Beelzebub shall 
not tear me from the spot. Under correction 
you must see as I do. A beach now — ^but that 
is absurd,” and he turned to his investigations, 
waving aside my suggestions superbly. 

Gerry and Denvarre were a bit flushed and 
excited over the matter. The former opined 
that an hour or two’s pottering round these 
walls might be interesting, and that discoveries 
worth making might be made. He suggested 
that the mid-day halt for food should now take 
place, and that if necessary Lessaution should 
remain afterward while we strolled forward on 
our way. We could pick him up on our return. 

I agreed to this compromise sulkily, and 
marched down to where Parsons still smoked 
patiently among the packs. He rose to his feet, 
and stood at attention. 


A GLACIER CAVE 


173 


“Put up the little cooking tent,” said I, “and 
light the little stove. We’re going to camp and 
lunch.” 

He began to unfold the canvas and erect the 
shelter for our little oil oven. I busied myself 
in getting out the meat pie that Baines had 
provided, and extracting knives and forks from 
their various receptacles. Then I sat down 
upon a boulder and watched Parsons’ further 
operations with a dreamy content in mere idle- 
ness and in the sunshine. 

“Wonderful pretty, that, m’lord,” said Par- 
sons confidentially, as he looked up from his 
labors, crimson with much bending. He point- 
ed with his finger toward the farthest side of 
the glacier, whence a stream rippled out pat- 
teringly. 

I followed the direction of his hand and saw, 
what, in the general distraction of Lessaution’s 
first find, we had overlooked. 

A huge ice-grotto, blue and delicately shaded, 
ran deeply into the heart of the glacier. The 
sun sparkled on the archway that spanned the 
entrance, glowing through panes of clear ice in 
fifty azure shades and glittering prisms. The 
stream that purred out, born of the friction 
on the granite bed below the ice, looked heart- 
some and inviting in the sunlight. It was in 
contrast to the stony immobility around, and 
I rose and took a few steps forward to con- 
template it. 

The cave ran straight back from its mouth 
into the ice-hollows, and the reflections lit it 


174 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


Up for some little way back into its dark re- 
cesses. It looked mysteriously fascinating, as 
its blue shadows melted into the impenetrable 
gloom. I stepped a few yards into it, admiring 
the delicious tints that filtered through the roof. 
The thought struck me that while our lunch 
was warming it might be amusing to investi- 
gate this sub-glacial waterway. I returned to 
Mr. Parsons, who had watched my motion 
with genuine but repressed interest. 

“Have we candles?” I inquired. 

“I did happen to put in a couple of dips, 
m’lord, thinking they might come in useful if 
we camped the night. Not that we have what 
you’d call much night here,” added the sailor, 
as if it was an additional grievance of these 
outlandish realms. 

He produced his greasy little parcel, and we 
entered the cavern, getting well dripped on by 
the way. The little cascades fell freely from the 
roof in the increasing heat of the sun. 

As the gloom deepened we lit up, and I strode 
ahead holding my candle high in the air. Par- 
sons followed behind, gaping. In this order we 
plunged into the icy mysteries before us. 

The stream was a shallow one — not above 
four or five inches deep for the most part — and 
we splashed and slushed along with ease on 
its sandy bed. But the cold was atrocious. 
It struck home the deeper for our sudden with- 
drawal from the full sunlight. As we advanced 
the clear blue of the ice above the entrance 
deepened to a sickly green ; as we went on 


A GLACIER CAVE 


175 


to a lurid purple. Finally the rays eeased to 
percolate through the heavy masses above us. 
We were in thick darkness — the gloom that has 
never known the day. 

I heard Parsons shiver behind me as he crept 
closer. The roof-drippings fell with a hollow 
splash in the pools and shallows. A fearsome 
stillness filled and pervaded the cave between 
these patterings. Our steps and splashings 
seemed to roar out with indecent echoes on 
the awesome quiet. A scene of impertinence — 
of pushing forwardness — in thus invading these 
awful recesses fell upon me. My steps began to 
slow; a shudder swept my nerves, making me 
tremble creepily. 

As I slowed and halted I noticed that the 
drip and trickle from the roof had ceased. The 
cave was widening and deepening into a space 
that the feeble light of our candles refused to fill. 
We were in the midst of a growing emptiness. 

I looked above me. The roof was lost in 
gloom. A thick, velvety blackness was over 
us, and no answering flash from ice walls 
came as I waved my light. We had strayed 
from under the glacier, and were overhung by 
some huge escarpment of the mountain-side. 
On the one side of us was the wall of ice; on 
the other the sullen gray cliff of granite. The 
floor was smooth. The stream oozed along 
the foot of the ice- wall with a silent, plashless 
flow. 

We walked half aimlessty forward, hesitating 
for a direction in this uniform emptiness. Then 


176 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

the light passed uncertainly upon a yellowish 
mass a few fathoms before us — a vague break- 
ing of the dimness of the void. We drew to- 
ward it, and the shadows danced and played 
upon clean-cut blocks ; there was no mistaking 
their nature. They were quarried — the squared 
masonry of a buried city. 

Parsons crept closer again. 

“’Anged if it ain’t a ’ouse,” he whispered, 
and it seemed to me that I could hear the 
throb of his pulses in the stillness. “A bloomin’ 
’ouse,” he repeated, with the evident desire to 
prove to himself that this was no delusive 
dream. 

We both breathed hard as we continued star- 
ing at the yellow gable, watching the waver- 
ings of the dip-light across its stones. Emo- 
tions that varied only in degree filled our minds 
alike. We were, without any doubt, horribly 
afraid. For half a minute we stood unstirring. 
Then by a common and inquisitive impulse we 
advanced shoulder to shoulder to the door- 
way. 

There was no door. A fungus-smelling pile 
of sodden pulp showed what might have been 
wood long centuries before. Beside the post- 
ern lay a metal bucket, dull and dirt-colored; 
opposite the doorway was an open hearth. 
The floor was inches deep in a curious, strong- 
smelling, fungoid litter. Among it lay half-a- 
dozen or more utensils, all of the same dull- 
colored metal. In the ingle nook was a stone 
seat. 






IT WAS THE FACE OF ONE ALONE WITH DEATH. 


Page 777 



A GLACIER CAVE 


177 


Another entrance gave upon an inner room. 
To this we strode delicately. At our entry we 
stayed our on-coming with a great gasp. I 
stepped back upon Parsons — shuffling and mow- 
ing at him unseeingly. My eyes were glued upon 
the far side of the room, while my feet with 
automatic intelligence endeavored to carry me 
out of it. 

A stone slab filled the far side of this recess, 
and on it were heaped various sad-hued fabrics 
— bed coverings of «orts. They were discolored 
with age, but undecayed by reason of the un- 
dying frost. Above the tossed and furrowed 
ends of these rags a face appeared — a face lined 
with a thousand wrinkles, drawn and yellow as 
parchment. T he features had been old and agon- 
ized or ever the breath left the body. They had 
been of noble outline in life, but terror had been 
laid like a thick mask upon the dead lineaments. 
It was the face of one alone with death — a death 
that crept to it slowly, while the soul waited 
in its desolation, helpless, alone, despairing. 

Parsons found a cracked and reedy voice. 

“Gawd pity ’im,” he mumbled, closing up to 
me fearfully; “’e ’ad it ’eavy at the last.” 

The flicker of the wavering candlelight was 
chasing the gray shadows across and about 
the fear-haunted face. If was as if the agonies 
of centuries back had leaped to life. A drop 
from the roof fell upon the wick of a dip, mak- 
ing it hiss and sputter raggedly; the to and 
fro of the twittering rays made the dead lips 
twitch, as it seemed. The shade that swept 
12 


178 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


the rigid form, as we moved toward it, gave 
it the horrid appearance of shuddering, and 
thereat I heard Parsons’ breath whistle be- 
tween his teeth. The black hair fell lank and 
straight from the furrowed forehead, and as 
the thin light gleamed upon it, it seemed as if 
it waved in an unfelt draught. 

VVe bent over the poor, distorted apology for 
a human form. The hands were crossed upon 
the wasted chest, each twined within the other 
convulsively. The eyes were half closed. The 
sheen of the dead pupils seemed to watch us 
furtively between the wrinkled lids. The lips 
were agape, and the teeth set stiffly upon each 
other. The muscles in the worn throat stood 
out like the kinks in the parcelling of a worn 
hawser. The whole face and figure gave the 
impression of despair personified — of death 
awaited lingeringly, and the bitter cup thereof 
drained to the last dregs. 

There was a plash and gurgle from the stream 
behind me, and the swish of hasty stumblings 
through its pools. I was suddenly aware that 
I was alone before this gruesomeness — that 
down the watery pathway we had come Par- 
sons was making for wholesome light and air 
at the top of his speed. He ran staggeringly, 
holding out his candle before him, and as I 
saw the outline of his body diminishingly black 
through the doorway, a cold dread caught 
me by the throat. Horror gripped my pulses 
clammily. 

Somehow, within the next ten seconds, I 


A GLACIER CAVE 


179 


found myself hunting Parsons hard down that 
icy waterway, with fright— pure, unadulterated 
funk — ^following desperately swift upon my foot- 
steps. I stopped to consider nothing, save that 
behind me was the shadow of death centuries 
old in all its hoary malignancy, while in front 
was sunlight and nervous, warm-blooded hu- 
manity as personified by the escaping Parsons. 
With these considerations carven on my brain 
I splashed along like a hunted otter. Reeling, 
white-faced, shamed, but full of gratitude for 
the warm blessings of the sun and sea-borne 
air, we stumbled out into the canon, and squat- 
ted again beside our baggage. We looked not 
each other in the eyes for the space of a full 
minute; then I gave a half-hysteric chuckle. 

“It was only a mummy of sorts,’* I explained 
apologetically to James Parsons, seaman and 
coward. 

“That’s as mebbe, m’lord,” quoth Mr. Par- 
sons with dogged deliberation, “but it ’appens 
to be the first I’ve seen of whatever it ’appens 
to be, an’ please the Lord I’ll never see an- 
other.” He capped this shghtly involved indi- 
cation of his views with a mighty spit into the 
clearness of the stream, the while he shifted his 
quid thankfully. 

“Nonsense,” said I, with a great show of 
spirit and discipline, “you must come back with 
me at once. I dare say there are discoveries 
to be made of lots of things. Gold, very likely, 
and other valuables,” and I rolled my eyes at 
him. He only sniffed doubtfully. 


180 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“With all due respeck, m’lord,” answered the 
seaman firmly, “I would not go back if you 
dammed the brook with diamonds.” 

“You’re a coward. Parsons,” said I disgust- 
edly. “What’s there to be afraid of? It’s sim- 
ply the body of a man who was caught by the 
glacier when it overwhelmed this valley, as it 
evidently has done. It’s the cold that’s kept 
him fresh.” 

“Yes, m’lord,” answered Parsons, without 
conviction. 

“So of course we ought to look into the mat- 
ter further. Who knows what there may be be- 
sides what we’ve seen? I shall call the others.” 

“^Yes, m’lord,” quoth Mr. Parsons, with stead- 
fast respect. “I should certainly call the oth- 
ers.” 

I turned away, disgusted with his cowardice, 
scrambled up the side of the ravine again, and 
strolled back to where they were still delving 
away among the rubbish. They took no no- 
tice of me, and I lit a cigarette with delibera- 
tion before I inquired if They had found any- 
thing. 

“Ouf! but you annoy me with your ques- 
tions,” snapped Lessaution. “Is it that you 
expect us to examine the whole of this affair 
in ten minutes? This is the discovery of the 
century — the most magnificent one that has 
been made about peoples of which we know 
nothing. And you say have you found any- 
thing? We have found a house, and have been 
here the littlest half-hour.” 


A GLACIER CAVE 


181 


“Ah,” said I superciliously; “I think you’re 
wasting your time.” 

He boiled over at me, his face the color of 
beetroot. 

“Can you not search for your beach without 
disturbing the important investigations of 
savants? What is your beach to me? Go you 
on and look for it, and leave us to dig at our 
leisure.” He snorted with indignation as he 
turned away. 

“Well,” said I apathetically, “of course you 
know best. If this roofless hovel is enough for 
you, well and good. But when a few hundred 
yards away a whole city awaits your inspec- 
tion, I should have thought ” ’ 

“What!” they all bawled, leaping up. 
“Where? Which?” and they stared round them 
as if they expected to see it perched on the 
adjoining precipices. 

“Anywhere but where you’re looking,” I re- 
turned dryly. There, if you’re so anxious to 
know,” and I pointed into the depths of the 
glacier. 

“But how ” began Gerry. 

“By the front door,” said I, interrupting. 
“There’s a passage right into the heart of it, 
and here have you all been idling about this 
one outlying bothie, while Parsons and I with 

some show of energy have been finding out ” 

It was no use continuing, for they had all for- 
saken me and raced down the slope toward the 
baggage, bawling aloud to Parsons for the 
candles. I followed at a more leisurely pace. 


182 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


and before I had time to overtake them, they 
had disappeared into the cavern with the only 
two lights. As I did not feel inclined to follow 
in the dark, I sat myself down to inspect the 
meat pie, and await their return. 

They came staggering out in about half-an- 
hour, bearing something between the three of 
them. What sense of decency or of the fitness of 
things they possessed I don’t know, but it was 
the mummy they’d got, arranged on a sort of 
hammock of their coats, which they carried by 
the sleeves. The unfortunate corpse rolled and 
crumbled hideously as it came thus immodestly 
out into the sunlight after its centuries of se- 
clusion. I could not restrain my indignation. 
Even Parsons was moved. 

“It ain’t ’ardly decent,” he observed, looking 
across at me. 

“I think you’re the most disreputable scoun- 
drels I ever came across,” said I warmly, ad- 
vancing upon the party. “You’re worse than 
Burke or Hare. Why couldn’t you let the 
wretched carcass sleep in peace?” 

“Humbug!” quoth Gerry discourteously. 
“D’you think we’re going to let the only Mayan 
extant rot away in the bowels of a glacier for 
want of a little embalming? The Professor’s 
going to stuff it.” 

“Oh, he is, is he?” said I, and smiled into my 
mustache. I had a good idea of what would 
occur when this worn carrion had been out in 
the sunlight for an hour or two. “I wish him 
joy,” I added politely. 


A GLACIER CAVE 


183 


They set it down upon a smooth lump of 
granite, and the Professor tripped round it 
ecstatically. Denvarre and Gerry listened to 
his chatterings with the solemn attention of 
profound ignorance, and Parsons eyed the 
whole proceeding with melancholy and distrust. 
The sun was exceedingly powerful, and I lit 
another cigarette. After about ten minutes I 
sniffed suspiciously. 

“Your beastly mummy’s waking up,” I haz- 
arded. “There’s a confounded smell of musk.” 

Lessaution opened his mouth to answer me. 
His e^^es were agleam with native fire, and his 
podgy little nostrils and upper lip were curled 
into a sneer. I perceived that he proposed to 
wither me with a torrent of sarcasm. 

As he stood opposite me his gaze took in the 
whole of the upper valley over my shoulder. 
Instead of the volley of winged words that I 
expected, the only sound that escaped between 
his teeth was a raucous croak. His mouth 
stayed, gaping widely. The fire died from his 
eyes, and I saw terror settle in them like a gray 
mist. His cap rose distinctly an inch upon his 
head, and he splayed out his hands before him, 
thrusting away from his white face as if to 
keep off a horror unimaginable. 

We four wheeled in our tracks. Then my 
throat dried up within me; my lips twitched; 
my knees were stricken with sudden palsy. F or 
if ever nightmare walked abroad embodied on 
God’s earth, it was there confessed before my 
eyes. 


CHAPTER XII 
THE GREAT GOD CAY 

High up the slope of the motintain-side, lurch- 
ing slowly across the bare, bleak slabs of 
granite, was a Beast, and he was like unto 
nothing known outside the frenzy of delirium. 
Swartly green was his huge lizard-like body, 
and covered with filthy excrescences of a livit 
hue. His neck was the lithe neck of a boa- 
constrictor, but glossy as with a sweat of oil. 
A coarse, heavy, serrated tail dragged and lol- 
luped along the rocks behind him, leaving in its 
wake a glutinous, snail-like smear. Four great 
feet or flippers paddled and slushed beside — 
rather than under— this mass of living horror, 
urging it lingeringly and remorselessly toward 
us. The great neck swayed and hovered before 
it, poising the little malignant head. The 
horny eyelids winked languidly over the deep- 
set wicked eyes. The lean, red tongue, slavering 
over the thin, hide-like lips, wagged out at us 
as if in mockery. The teeth, and the nails in 
the webbed, puddy feet, were yellow and tusk- 
like, and a skinny dewlap rustled as it crawled 
across the stones. 

Three hundred yards away the Thing stopped 
and shook and swung its horrid neck at us 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


185 


almost derisively. The luminous eyes shone 
irideseent beneath the slow winking lids. The 
poised head swayed uncertainly. 

Suddenly the long neck stiffened. It set stifT 
as a rope that warps a ship from harbor. The 
eyes settled into a glassy stare. The swallow- 
ings that had pulsed at the junctions of the 
neck and dewlap ceased. The muscles became 
rigid. A hideous paralysis seemed to fall upon 
it as if by magic. 

A sigh— almost a sob— shivered up into the 
stillness, and I looked at my companions. All 
of them were staring, staring, staring — three 
of them with eager, human, living faces, the 
fourth with the carven visage of the dead. 

Parsons might have been graven from the 
rock. His hands were caught upon the lappels 
of his jacket; his lips and teeth were slightly 
parted ; his eyes burnt their steadfast gaze upon 
the Beast unblinkingly. But for the measured 
rise and fall of his chest, he was as unstirring 
as one of the canon boulders. 

Then I saw that the ghastly Thing was 
staring with concentration at Parsons. As I 
watched, it gaped upon him. Parsons opened 
his jaws with measured, automatic motion, 
and gaped back. The sinuous neck swayed. 
Parsons stretched his throat with horrifying 
imitation. The thing advanced three ponderous 
steps. Parsons lurched forward a like space 
draggingly. The long serrated tail lashed to 
and fro once and again. Parson waggled his 
body monstrously. 


Ig6 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTPl WALL 


I glanced at the glacier cave which opened 
invitingly fifty yards away. Then I turned to 
measure the Horror intently with my eye. Be- 
yond a doubt his gigantic limbs could never 
pass it. I rushed at Parsons, and seized his 
coat-collar. He struck at me furiously and un- 
seeingly, his eyes gluing themselves to the fas- 
cination before him. I yelled to the others, 
and then simultaneously we made a rush to the 
cleft in the glacier face, bearing with us the 
struggling sailor.- He hit out madly, his frozen 
death-like eyes still rapt upon the Beast. 
Shrieking, fighting, but still staring, we shoved 
him through the icy waterway, and heaved him 
with great splashings round the corner that 
screened the entrance. 

As we lugged him back into the blue dimness 
of the cavern I pressed my palms upon his eye- 
lids, and bawled reassuringly into his ear. As 
if a garment fell from him his body lost its 
rigidity ; as I removed my hand his eyes looked 
back into mine with the natural light soft 
within them. The tense glare of a moment be- 
fore was gone. He began to sob and cling to 
me. 

“Oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord,” he yammered, 
gripping my arm till I could have yelled with 
the pain; “the eyes of him — the blisterin’ eyes. 
They dragged me like a puppy on a string. I 
’ad to go an’ be thankful for goin’. ’E’ll ’ave 
me yet, ’e’ll ’ave me yet. ’E’ll nip me up an’ 
break my back as if I was a bilge rat, an’ no 
more. Oh, for the Lord’s sake ’old on to me, 


The great god cay 


187 


or I’ll be cracked like a nut in ’is ’orrid jaws, 
an’ I didn’t sign for no dragons, m’lord, but 
only as deck ’and an’ not for no wanderin’ s in 
devils’ lands.” And so on and so forth did he 
incoherently complain, covering his face from 
the sight of the approaching monster, grovel- 
ling at my feet on the damp sandy floor, as we 
others watched the gaunt Fearsomeness ap- 
proach. 

As it waddled clumsily up to the entrance we 
shrank further back into the gloom of the 
cavern. It stopped as it straddled across the 
out-gushing stream, damming the waters with 
its ungainly bulk, and forming a turbid pool. 
It lifted its pink, pointed snout curiously, and 
sniffed the air with parted lips. Then the little 
triangular head swung the full length of the 
neck into the cave, and the smell of noxious 
breath and musk clouded down upon us, mak- 
ing us cough with its disgusting effluvia. 

The teeth snapped asunder as the lithe tongue 
licked across them, and as they closed again the 
breath hissed between them. The green light 
from its eyes shone luminous in the twilight of 
the overhanging ice. There was a swish and 
rush of released waters as it moved forward, 
and closed in upon the cave mouth. The dim- 
ness grew to utter night save for the faintest 
glow that filtered in from above, and the two 
pitiless eyes shone poised in the darkness like 
living coals. 

I fumbled for the match-box, and tried to 
strike a vesta, but my trembling fingers spilled 


188 BEYOND THE GREAT vSOUTH WALL 


the half of them. The few seconds of horror, 
while I picked and fiddled at them in the dark- 
ness, and those two orbs of searching horror 
swayed above me, is an experience I am not 
likely to forget if I live to be a hundred. 

As the dips took flame, and we saw the 
nearness of the Thing, we gasped with the 
freezing fear of it and backed still further into 
the recesses of the glacier. The ice began to 
melt where the heat of the horny excrescences 
pressed upon it, and for one unreasoning mo- 
ment I seriously considered if he meant to 
break in upon us by this slow means. But the 
sight of the thick, curtain-like glacier, dark 
above us with its hundreds of feet of virgin ice, 
reassured me. Little by little, as the first shock 
of terror began to dull, I pulled myself to- 
gether. 

The others too, I noticed, were beginning to 
bear themselves more like men and less like 
whipped puppies.' Lessaution actually donned 
a triumphant expression, and his lips moved. 
For a moment or so, though, his voice failed to 
respond to the call of his intelligence. Finally 
he burst into words. 

“Well, my friends, well! What have you to 
say? Here you have the god Cay — the great 
Beast of the document, the great absurdity 
that could not possibly exist. Do we see him? 
Is he here, or is it possibly a dream, and we 
shall all awake together?” and the little wretch 
laughed, actually laughed exultingly, as he 
grinned round upon us. 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


189 


As for me, when I heard his words my heart 
gave a great leap. I had utterly forgotten the 
horrible old story of the document. Looking 
on this atrocity, I could but wonder if there 
was any truth in it, and in the fearful tale of 
the devouring of Alfa, the sacrificial virgin. 
And as I speculated on Hardal’s wild frenzy if 
he saw her set in the path of this filthy mon- 
strosity, I did not marvel that he had been hot 
to avenge his love or to die with her, even if 
unavailingly. 

And then, as you may imagine, my thoughts 
wandered off swiftly to Gwen, and my gorge 
rose and my pulses leaped outrageously at the 
bare idea of seeing her or any other human 
being in the bestial Thing’s maw. The re- 
membrance that she and twoscore other souls 
were swinging on that open pool, the easiest 
possible prey to this crawling Horror, made me 
curse deeply below my breath, while behind the 
imprecation followed earnestly a prayer. 

Parsons still babbled and chattered in the 
background with his face to earth. Denvarre 
and Gerry stood silent, their faces as white as 
the ice-splits beside them, but Lessaution’s 
color was returning, and his show of bravado 
increased. He strode a pace or two nearer the 
swinging head, and began to look up at it 
inquisitively, waving his hand and strutting as 
if he stood before a class. 

“You see, my friends, you see,” he expatiated 
with a platform manner, “this is of the sup- 
posedly extinct race of the Dinosauria. Of this 


190 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


animal and others like him we hav examples 
in the Secondary period and the Jurassic for- 
mation. Of this class, but not of this order, is 
the great Sea Serpent, at which imbeciles pre- 
tend to laugh, but it has been seen — ah, yes, 
even as we see this monster before us. Since 
the days before history he has been here — this 
great and wonderful beast, and to us — to us 
who have toiled, comes the honor — the supreme 
honor to discover him. He was old when the 
race of Maya came ; he is older now. And yet 
we stand familiarly before him. We look up at 
him, and there you see he wags his head. So 
we say belle chanee de faire votre connaissance^ 
monsieur, and we bow to introduce ourselves,” 
and the little man smirked and bobbed to the 
hideous head as, shuttle-like, it weaved rest- 
lessly from side to side of the cavern before his 
eyes. 

It was the most absurdly ghastly combina- 
tion of the horrible and the ridiculous that ever 
presented itself to a sane brain, to see that self- 
important little ass parade himself and point 
before that loathsome presence. His round 
little stomach was silhouetted black against 
the glistening ice, his arms were spread abroad, 
his toes out- turned, and swagger perspired 
from his every pore; while above him swung 
that living climax of horror, arrant in its filthy 
gruesomeness, indecently manifest in the face of 
nature. One might well be forgiven if one 
barely gave credence to one’s own eyesight. 

As the Frenchman made obeisance forward, 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


191 


vSpreading his palms outward, and shrugging 
his shoulders with this outrageous buffoonery 
and travesty of courage, like a flash the gaping 
mouth dropped down upon him, and the red, 
sinuous tongue lapped out at him. 

Uttering a shrill cry he stepped backward. 
His footsteps were hasty and uncertain, and 
his feet slipped upon the smoothness of the roof 
drip that swamped the rocky floor. His feet 
fled from under him, and he rolled over, falling 
within reach of the eager, straining lips. 

The tip of the curling tongue fell upon his 
shoulder. The roughnesses of it clung to his 
jacket, fastening themselves to the coarse text- 
ure. He struck out at it wildly, and his palm 
brushed the red, rasping surface. His hand fell 
back bleeding and flayed, torn by the ragged 
point as it scored across it. He shrieked aloud, 
squirming and dragging desperately at the hold 
upon his arm, wriggling frantically. Above 
him the green eyes flamed scornfully, gloating 
upon him as a stoat might on a struggling 
rabbit. Out of the open jaws the saliva poured 
upon him, drenching him with noisomeness. 

For one stupefying second we were paralyzed, 
fascinated by abounding horror. Then Den- 
varre’s rifle sprang to his shoulder, and as we 
leaped forward a shot re-echoed clatteringly 
down the dark aisles of the icy passages. A 
deep, livid gap showed angrily and red in the 
lapping, sinuous tongue. With the swiftness of 
light it swept from its hold upon the jacket, 
rending the stout cloth in the suddenness of the 


192 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

release. Before the crack of the rifle had died 
into the silences we seized the little man’s out- 
stretched arms, and shot him back into safety. 
We heaved him to his feet, gasping, panting, his 
teeth chattering with the black terror of his 
escape. 

The light and the untainted air began to rush 
back into the cave, as with a heavy lurch the 
beast withdrew its blocking body from the en- 
trance. The dark blood was dripping in gouts 
from its wounded tongue, mixing with its 
saliva in pools upon the rocks, and sinking 
smearingly into the sand. Even in that mo- 
ment of horror I couldn’t help noticing how 
the red stains shone upon the yellow nails in 
each webby foot, and how the pulses in its 
wrinkled dewlap increased their throbbings 
with the sudden pain of the wound. 

As it waddled sulkily away from the cave 
mouth, Denvarre slipped in another cartridge, 
and aiming carefully for its head, fired again. 
The merest shred of horny skin flicked away 
from above its eyelid as the bullet thudded 
home, and not a vestige of blood showed upon 
the green hide. Evidently those scales were 
bullet-proof. 

It turned with a puzzled air as it felt the rap 
of the ball, looking back at us in an almost 
meditative manner, as if wondering if we had 
anything to do with this thing. Then its eye 
caught and dwelt upon the Mayan mummy, 
which still lay half divested of its coverings 
upon the slab of stone beside the stream. It 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


193 


ambled forward a pace or two, nosing at the 
carrion uncertainly. Then it swung its head 
toward the ice-stream, and laved and slobbered 
its tongue in the water till the bleeding had 
well-nigh ceased. There was a snap of his bony 
jaws and a twist of the hard lips as the head 
shot back again. A single gulp sufficed, and 
both coats and body were gone. Nothing re- 
mained but the slowly-sinking swelling of the 
long thick throat, and a ragged shred or two 
of cloth upon the gray stones at its feet. 

With heavy strides it moved off ponderously 
in the direction whence it came, clambering up 
the rubble of the volcanic slope. For a quarter 
of an hour we saw it dwindle into the distance 
of the mountain-side, till finally it rounded a 
spur of the canon and disappeared from our 
view. 

Then we left our staring, to which we had 
kept with an intentness which only those who 
have experienced a like nerve-sapping fear can 
understand. First we examined poor Lessau- 
tion’s palm and shoulder. They were in a sorry 
case indeed. 

The surface of his flesh where the rasping 
tongue had swept it was scored as if by some 
huge nutmeg-grater. The skin was hanging 
from it in thin strips and filaments. Where the 
utmost tip had touched his cheek in the swift 
withdrawal was a deep, livid scar like the brand 
of a hot iron. His left palm was raw, not 
a vestige of skin remained upon it. 

We set the unfortunate little chap upon a 
13 


194 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


boulder outside the cave, and I tore a rag or 
two from my shirt, wrung them out in the 
stream, and washed and cleansed the wound 
to the best of my ability. With the remaining 
lint I bound up the quivering hand and shoul- 
der, and improvised a sling from a handker- 
chief. Then we set ourselves to consider what 
should be done. 

“We ought to follow the brute and not rest 
till we’ve finally polished him off,” said Den- 
varre emphatically. “Supposing he descended 
upon the ship when we were away?” 

“I am supposing it,” said I, “and it makes 
me sick when I think of it, and that’s why I 
say return to the ship at once to warn them 
in case he pays them a visit. How are we to 
track him among all these rifts and gorges of the 
mountain-side? and meanwhile he may be roll- 
ing down upon that undefended ship in that 
open pool. No. Home first, hunting him down 
afterward — if you like. As for me, I fail to see 
how we are going to do it without losing our 
own lives over the job.” 

They all seemed to have a good deal to say 
upon this point. Lessaution, in spite of the 
pain of his wounds, had not lost his voice, and 
offered plan after plan of the most strategic 
order, being frantic for further interviews with 
the monster, the discovery of which he re- 
garded as the culminating honor of the expedi- 
tion. But by degrees Gerry and I managed to 
instill a little sense into him. 

We pointed out that we were not prepared 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


195 


to cope with this bullet-resisting abomination, 
our only chance of destroying him being ap- 
parently to decoy him within range of our lit- 
tle six-pounder signal gun, and see if that 
would have any influence with him. We did 
not know the recesses of the gorge as he did, 
and should be at a great disadvantage, for he 
was liable at any moment, if disturbed, to sud- 
denly emerge from round a corner, and, as Mr. 
Parsons described it, “nip ms like bilge rats.” 
That while we were wasting time discovering 
a lair which might well be empty, he might 
recover himself of his wound, and bear down 
upon the unprepared ship’s company. That 
for the present he had fed, his wound was 
smarting, and he was unlikely to follow and 
overtake us in the open as the Frenchman sug- 
gested. And thus after much talk our decision 
was taken for return. 

So down the ca^on we retreated hastily, 
with many backward looks, as you may well 
imagine, our hearts quaking at the thought of 
what might happen if we were tracked to the 
shallowing lake and there trapped in our help- 
lessness. I must own that little Lessaution 
came out a trump. The agony of his half- 
dressed wounds must have been great, but he 
made light of them as veriest pin-pricks, actu- 
ally laughing over his adventure as the best 
of jokes against himself. For the pride of our 
achievement, in finding not only a buried race 
but an extinct animal also, had lifted him 
above all considerations of comnton sense. He 


196 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


revelled in a sort of scientific ecstasy which 
obliterated all remembrance of the narrowest 
squeak ever man had from a fate of unimagi- 
nable horror. And so he ceased not his happy 
chatterings for so much as a single instant. 

Parsons moaned and groaned respectfully all 
along the way, referring in dismal undertones 
to the land of his birth, and the extremely 
slender probability of his ever seeing the same 
again, regretting fervently his past treatment 
of his maternal progenitor, with many fanci- 
ful pictures of her emotions could she see the 
hapless case of the son of her constant sorrow. 
And he spent so much of his time looking jerk- 
ily over his shoulder, as sudden spasms of fear 
convinced him that we were being pursued, 
that his falls averaged not less than twenty 
per mile. Gerry was silent, brooding, as I 
could understand, over the perils that might 
be menacing the ship in our absence, and it 
was a phase of thought which commanded 
my full sympathy and respect. Denvarre, who 
is a keen sportsman, whenever Lessaution gave 
him a chance, discoursed learnedly on rifles, 
displaying much technical knowledge of initial 
velocities and expanding bullets, as bearing on 
the chance of penetrating the monster’s hide. 
But I fear he lacked an audience. And as the 
hours slipped by we reached the far end of the 
gorge, and stumbled out on to the roughnesses 
of the farther moraine. Here we had to give 
all the assistance we could to Lessaution, 
whose useless arm was a terrible handicap to 


THE GREAT GOD CAY 


197 


him on such going, and it was with great 
thankfulness we saw a few hundred yards be- 
fore us the point at which the boulders ceased, 
and the smooth going stretched to the shores 
of our little lake. We reached the corner that 
screened the ship and the pool from us, and 
turned it, rounding the jutting rock with eager 
eyes. As one man we stopped to gape upon 
the empty foreground. Both ship and lake were 
gone. 


CHAPTER XIII 

A CLOSED DOOR 

In the morning we had left a pool of clear, 
shining blue, still as a Thames backwater, and 
the tall ship resting motionless on its pliant 
bosom. Every spar and rope had been dis- 
tinctly outlined and reflected on the gleaming 
surface, which mirrored the very lines of the 
cutwater. Now, instead of the soft glitter of 
the lake laving the foot of the climbing glacier, 
an empty round of bleak and ice-worn rock 
confronted us, standing out hard and barren 
in the red glow of the sunset. 

With a yell we raced over the flats of smooth 
stone to gaze into the hollow shadows where 
the morning shine of the pool had been. With 
wide-eyed wonder we gazed down the sloping 
bank. An extraordinary sight was there dis- 
played. 

A huge crack ran across the empty basin of 
the lake, seaming the granite at its deepest 
part for a space of about fifty yards. Wedged 
in the grip of it was the old Racoon^ half sup- 
ported by the nip of the rock, half leaning on 
the little launch which lay beside her, buttress- 
ing her with its funnel and bulwarks. Higher 
up the slope from us one of her great anchors 


A CLOSED DOOR 


19Q 


was caught in a crevice of the rocks, and a 
hawser was rove from a pulley on the shank 
of it to the bows of the ship. A group of the 
crew was hauling at this with chorused shout- 
ings, while astern a like arrangement had been 
tautened out. 

The ship was trembling and wobbling as the 
thrills of the hawser shook her bows, and the 
granite edges scored and frayed her timbers as 
she wrestled in the mouth of the cleft. In an- 
other group farther off, the ladies stood upon 
the still dripping stones to watch the opera- 
tions, keeping cautiously their distance, in case 
the ship should lurch over before the ropes had 
her fast. The bello wings of Waller and the 
boatswain echoed thunderously across the am- 
phitheatre of stone as they urged the men to 
renewed efforts. 

The unexpeeted wonder of this sight held us 
silent for a score of seconds ; then Gerry gave 
expression to the sentiments of the company at 
large. 

“Well, I am damned,’^ quoth he emphatically. 

“I wish the lake had been,” I answered rue- 
fully. “There goes the last of the Racoon. If 
she topples over we’re done for.” 

“But look here,” went on Gerry, gazing at 
the empty basin with an air of stupefied sur- 
prise, “the pool’s fallen below the level of the 
sea outside. How in the name of wonder do 
you account for that?” 

Lessaution found his voice. “It is one of the 
many wonders of the volcanic actions which 


200 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALE 


we discover so plentifully in this country. 
The water withdraws itself— is sucked, if you 
will— into the bowels of the earth. Perhaps it 
will rise again. Who knows?” 

“In that case,” said I, “we shall live in per- 
petual dread of sudden drowning, if she’s roped 
down to the bed of the lake like that. We shall 
have to buttress her up some other fashion. 
We must build supports of stone beneath her; 
then if she should suddenly be floated again she 
won’t be swamped. But we’d better get down 
and hear the news.” 

The slope below us was short and steep. 
Lessaution looked down it cautiously. He re- 
moved the shot-gun which swung from his 
back, seated himself upon his cartridge-bag, 
and splayed out his legs before him. Having 
thus ingeniously converted himself into a hu- 
man sledge, he pushed off, and in a moment 
was flying down the damp, smooth rocks, ar- 
riving within a hundred yards of the ship with 
safety and despatch, and greeted by the ladies 
with a shrill cheer. 

It was undignified, no doubt, but an emi- 
nently practical device. We were by no means 
slow to follow his example, and straddling 
upon the shining slope, fled down after him 
with much the eflect of luggage being trans- 
ferred to the Dover boat, and reached the bot- 
tom with swiftness and without mishap. 

The ladies met us with effusion. Since our 
departure, they seemed by their own account 
to have lived on the edge of eternity, expect- 


A CLOSED DOOR 


201 


ing fearful disaster at any moment. We learned 
that the ship had continued to sink all morn- 
ing, to their great disquietude, though Waller 
confidently assured them that there must cer- 
tainly be fathoms of good sea- water between 
them and the bottom when the fall ceased, as 
they could not possibly drop lower than the 
tide-line. Resting on these assurances, they 
had betaken themselves to lunch, and only dis- 
covered the depths of his mistake when the 
keel took ground, and the ship began to sub- 
side crabwise on to the launch, upsetting the 
table, and wrecking the saloon for the second 
time in eight-and-forty hours. In great affright 
they had then scrambled hastily on deck, and 
camping meanwhile on the slope where we had 
found them, within half an hour had seen the 
last of the water gurgle gently into the great 
fissure below. 

Waller’s presence of mind had not failed him 
under this inglorious defeat of his prophetic 
powers, and he had immediately summoned 
the crew to stay the reeling ship with wind- 
lass and hawser, before she broke down the 
precarious support of the launch. We found 
this work being carried to a successful conclu- 
sion when we arrived. 

After Lessaution’s warning, and as all imme- 
diate danger of the ship’s toppling was over- 
come, I summoned Waller and Janson to me, 
and explained to them my plan for more ac- 
curately bringing about the stability of the 
ship, and at the same time avoiding the dan- 


202 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ger of her being swamped if the waters rose 
again. They agreed as to the soundness of 
these proposals, called to them the crew, and 
set forth immediately to the cliff-top to collect 
boulders. 

We of the expedition, meanwhile, having gone 
without lunch, attacked the meat pie which 
we had brought back unbroken in our haste, 
dining heartily, with the bare rocks for table. 
The ladies waited upon us most assiduously, 
hearing at the same time an edited account of 
the day’s perils, for we judged it best to keep 
from Lady Delahay’s ears, at any rate, the 
story of the great beast that roamed abroad 
so near her resting-place. Then we joined the 
crew who had ascended by devious ways^the 
steep escarpment of the basin, and helped them 
collect the boulders of the moraine upon the 
cliff-top in quantities. Here we cast them down 
headlong till sufficient for my purpose were 
heaped beside the ship. 

As night came down upon us — or rather 
dusk, for in those latitudes darkness was never 
complete — we descended in the manner first 
patented and approved by Lessaution, a system 
of travel received with great good-will and 
jocund outcry by the common sailor men, and 
then and there resolved by them into a race 
meeting on first principles. In which sporting 
event the heaviest weights in collusion with the 
smoothest breeches were favorites. 

This combination appeared in its most per- 
fected form in the person and habit of Mr. 


A CLOSED DOOR 


203 


Rafferty, boatswain, who out-distanced all 
competitors. But unfortunately the rapidity of 
his descent was in inverse ratio to the stout- 
ness of his nether garments, and when he rose 
from his too facile progress, the company 
turned from him with feigned unconsciousness 
and ill-concealed smiles. Poor Mr. Rafferty, his 
victory thus shamefully dulled, had to seek the 
shelter of the ship and his Sunday trousers, re- 
appearing after some few minutes clad in the 
latter, and with a chastened air. Daring with 
fiery glances the titters of the crew, he there- 
upon joined us in our work of rolling the great 
stones below the ship’s timbers. 

A couple of hours’ hard work saw buttresses 
raised sufficiently strong to avert all danger of 
the ship’s upsetting. From stem to stern we 
wedged the great boulders firmly beneath her, 
and alongside the edges of the cleft that gaped 
below her keel, and were enabled to release the 
hawsers from the sustaining anchors without 
causing her so much as a tremble. Then, thor- 
oughly tired out, we sought supper and, finally, 
bed, too weary to so much as dream of the 
wonders of this truly astounding day. 

It was a lovely calm morning when I got on 
deck nine or ten hours later ; and the sun was 
pouring down into the rocky hollow, flooding 
us with uplifting warmth and wholesomeness. 
Nor did the day lose its brightness when I 
found Gwen pacing the deck forward, enjoying 
a bath of sunshine before breakfast. 

“Good-morning,” said she brightly, as I 


204 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


stepped up. “Any the worse for your striving 
with beasts yesterday?” 

“I suppose Gerry has let the cat out, then?” 
I returned. “Too bad of him. There is no 
good in alarming ^-^ou unnecessarily.” 

“But, my dear Lord Heatherslie, one doesn’t 
stumble over a Dinosaurus, or a Plesiosaurus, 
or whatever egregious monster it was, every 
day of one’s life. I should have been despe- 
rately annoyed if he hadn’t told me. I think it’s 
most delightfully exciting.” 

“Do you?” said I dryly. “I think if you’d 
seen Lessaution squealing in his jaws yesterday, 
like a rabbit in a snare, you would have agreed 
that the pleasant excitement was rather dis- 
counted by the very unpleasant terror of it. I 
sincerely hope your mother has heard nothing 
about it.” 

She smiled. “Of course not. Mother has no 
imagination, and a very practical dislike of the 
out-of-place. Not that a Plesiosaurus, or for 
the matter of that a unicorn, would be out 
of place in this astounding land. After what 
we’ve gone through I’m by no means sur- 
prised.” 

“Please God he doesn’t come straggling down 
here,” said I devoutly. “What should you have 
done if he had turned up yesterday when you 
were all unprepared? I was nearly frantic at 
the thought.” 

“Done? Why, gone to ground like a badger,” 
she answered, pointing to the cleft in the rent 
rock-bed. “If he’s half the size Mr. Carver 


A CLOSED DOOR 


205 


makes out, we could sit in there and make 
faces at him. He wouldn’t have a chance to 
reach us.” 

‘‘What a very practical imagination you 
have,” I declared admiringly, as I peered over 
the bulwarks into the fissure. It sloped gently 
down from our stern into the darkness, in 
width about five feet— infinitely too small a 
space for the great brute to pass, as I could 
see. “That makes me feel much more com- 
fortable. Now if by any chance he does ap- 
pear, I shall know you have a refuge at 
hand. But we hope to kill him,” I added 
reassuringly. 

“Kill the only Dinosaur extant!” she expos- 
tulated, “I’m convinced Monsieur Lessaution 
will never allow it.” 

“I think after his experience of yesterday he is 
resigned to the sacrifice. He’ll enjoy cutting 
him up dead quite as much as admiring him 
from a distance living. Besides, according to 
him your sanctuary may at any moment fail 
you. The water, he says, may rise again as 
suddenly as it has disappeared.” 

“My goodness! that would be humiliating, 
wouldn’t it? Fancy if we were safely ensconced 
in there, and the waters that are under the 
earth vomited us out into his jaws. What an 
ignoble end to a yachting cruise.” 

“I’m afraid in any case you’ll have a rough 
time of it before we can get away,” said I, a 
little sadly. “We are going to do our best to 
send word to the Falklands, but it is bound to 


206 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

be a long business. I hope you won’t mind- 
much.” 

She looked at me with a smile that I can 
only describe as distracting. “My dear Lord 
Heatherslie,” she said quite earnestly, “I’m 
looking forward to it as one of the most de- 
lightful periods of my life. I have all I want to 
make me happy. If it wasn’t for mother I 
should be quite prepared to stay here months.” 

“I shouldn’t,” said I, quite gruffly, as the 
sound of the breakfast gong turned us toward 
the companion. “But then, you see, I haven’t 
all I want to make me happy,” and my voice 
shook the tiniest bit as I said it. 

She half stopped at the head of the stairs, 
and looked at me half inquiringly. She parted 
her lips as if she was going to speak, but 
thought better of it, and ran lightly down into 
the cabin, where she took her seat without a 
word, and it struck me that she was more 
silent than usual during breakfast. As for me, 
I had no strength to waste on mere conversa- 
tion, my time being fully occupied in assimilat- 
ing my victuals, and in fighting down the 
black temper which had me in its grip. 

For, truth to tell, my battle with my jealous 
self was wearing me sadly. I still went on 
loving Gwen for all I was worth, and the hope- 
less weeks that stretched before me wherein I 
must be in her constant company loomed dark 
and desperate. Every time she spoke to me 
was a pang; her very innocent friendliness an 
agony. No doubt physical weakness and the 


A CLOSED DOOR 


207 


stress of the last few days had something to do 
with it, bnt I could have ended my existence at 
that time with much satisfaction to myself, and 
I think it was only a sneaking sense of the 
utter cowardliness of the thing that stayed me. 
You can understand that I did not linger over 
breakfast. I took my cigar on deck at the 
earliest opportunity, and wrestled there alone 
with the devils of despair that had me in their 
grip, till I felt calmer and fit again for the toils 
of the coming day. 

I called Waller to me before the others came 
on deck, and we held consultation on our 
future movements. Our observations of the 
previous day had pretty well determined us 
that no means of launching a boat along the 
shores of the western cliffs was to be found. 
The terrible toil that would be involved in get- 
ting the sections of the launch across the rocky 
crevices of the moraine had decided us that we 
must look eastward if we wanted to find a 
beach to launch from before the winter closed 
down upon us and shut the surrounding wat- 
ers with closest barriers of ice. Eastward we 
therefore would make our day’s quest. 

Before we left I made time to investigate the 
cavern that opened down beneath our keel. I 
got a rope and fastened it to the bowsprit, and 
taking a turn of it round my elbow, lit a dip 
and crawled carefully down the sloping sides of 
the pit. The slant was steep, but there were 
numerous ledges and footholds, and about six 
feet below the surface a recess was hollowed 


208 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


out in the sides of the split, evidently caused by 
some lump of granite shivering off during the 
upheaval, and dropping further dov^n into the 
fissure. 

In this the damp of the receding waters still 
glistened, and lay in pools upon the floor. 
There was a bright, new riven appearance 
about the walls, showing that the strata-slip 
was recent. Bits of mica and other minerals, as 
yet undulled by exposure to the atmosphere, 
made this very plain. The huge cleft continued 
down in a thin well from the larger rent at the 
surface, losing itself in a darkness which might 
well be unplumbable. I could See one or two 
lumps of stone still sticking in the jaws of the 
gap — evidently remains of what had slipped 
down from the cavern in which I stood. Be- 
yond these was emptiness. Though my eyes 
found nothing in this void, my nose was as- 
sailed by a smell of sulphur as strong as the 
after-blow of a blasting fuse. 

I crept out again into the air, my throat very 
sore from the fumes that kept rising from be- 
low. I called the carpenter and one or two of 
the men, and set them to hack steps in the rock 
as far as the recess below, and directed them to 
cover the continuance of the fissure with planks. 
We unearthed a spare rudder-chain, and trailed 
it from a stanchion driven into the rocks. 
Thus we had a moderately easy passage into 
the chamber below, which could be used by the 
company at large if the Horror of the canon 
attempted to attack them. So, with minds 


A CLOSED DOOR 


209 


comparatively at ease, Garlieke, Gerry and I 
set forth to earry our exploration eastward 
aeross the glacier, leaving poor little Lessau- 
tion behind us, a melancholy object indeed, be- 
cause his wounded shoulder prevented his join- 
ing us in our researches. 

The eastern shore ran along the glacier edge 
for about a mile, gradually narrowing and 
mounting upward with an easy gradient. 
Finally the rock disappeared under the en- 
croaching ice, and the glacier fronted on the 
cliff head. The chance of a landing-place be- 
tween us and this point was plainly out of the 
question. Our plan was to surmount the 
glacier itself and explore the country beyond. 
Provided the going was not too rough or too 
broken by crevasses, it might be quite possible 
to convey the sections of our launch across it 
to any landing-place we might discover on the 
far side. 

So, armed with ice-axes, we three set out as 
a small advance party, meaning only to go a 
day’s journey and then return with our report. 
For if no chance of a beach was likely within 
a reasonable distance, we should waste no 
more time in expeditions, but set ourselves to 
lower the boat down the cliffs as best we 
could. 

All three of us have knocked about the Alps 
a bit. Therefore we managed our crawlings 
about the blue crevasses with a certain amount 
of ease, nor did the occasional dropping-in of 
an ice bridge occasion us great excitement. We 
14 


210 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


were roped of course, and moved with steadi- 
ness, but after a bit found that our mountain- 
eering muscles were not in the best of condition. 
Nor had we reckoned on the heat of the mid- 
day sun or its effect when reflected back from 
these glassy surfaces. 

After about two hours of heavy going and 
copious perspiration our skins began to fray 
most painfully, and our faces were the hue of 
rosy-fingered dawn. Gerry’s expressive features 
were literally hanging in rags, and Garlicke and 
I, tougher-hided animals though we were, saw 
the rocks that bordered the far side of the ice- 
field with no small gratitude. 

We left the ice and stepped out on to the nar- 
row margin of rock that flanked it. A few 
paces forward we found that the crags sunk 
sheer from our feet. Below us, some twenty 
fathoms or more, a still, black pool laved their 
base, rippleless as a Lethean lake. At the sea- 
ward end it was broken by rocks, piled and 
tumbled as if tossed there by some great con- 
vulsion. It was not hard to understand how 
this inland sea-pool had come into being. 

Originally it had been a bay or inlet with a 
narrow, land-locked entrance. Some upheaval 
—volcanic, no doubt — had shut down the guard- 
ing cliffs upon the opening as a curtain falls 
across a stage. The huge splinters, piled as 
they were across the narrows of this fiord, 
could scarcely be distinguished from the cliffs 
off which they had been rent. 

At the foot of the barrier an eddy rose now 


A CLOSED DOOR 


211 


and again, creaming white among the reefs 
that broke the sheen of the pool. This was 
where some subterranean entrance must keep 
the waters to tide-level. Now and again the 
shining poll of a sea-lion gleamed upon the sur- 
face, another proof that a sea-cave communi- 
cated with the outside. Opposite, on the east- 
ward side of the bay, were cliffs as steep as 
those among whose pinnacles we stood, and the 
lake swept away inland and was lost behind a 
spur of the mountain-side. 

This was an unexpected obstruction to our 
travel, and put a final stop to any idea of get- 
ting our launch to the sea from a beach. We 
turned to the left along the glacier edge to see 
what was hid from us by the flank of the hill, 
scrambling alternately from rock to ice. In 
about twenty minutes we reached the corner 
and rounded it. Then we saw the far end of 
the inlet. 

Half-a-mile further on, shining and yellow be- 
low us, was a beach of sand wet with the re- 
ceding tide. Streaked across it were many 
little rivulets, draining either from the glacier, 
or from sea-pools that filtered slowly through 
the ooze of the shore. Scarcely a ripple broke 
the calm. It sank down the beach, drooping 
imperceptibly without any of the roll that 
usually marks the defiant outgoing of the ebb. 
An oily stillness lay upon the waters. 

Dotted on the strand were various black 
objects, some larger, some smaller, but too far 
distant to be distinguishable. The smooth silt 


212 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

ran upward between narrowing cliffs, merging 
into the rock rubble that climbed the mountain- 
side. It lost itself among the crags of the sum- 
mit. 

Clouds of terns and kitty wakes were wheeling 
in the air, or strutting and scratching on the 
beach ; the larger birds — gulls, cormorants, and 
such-like — were pecking and fighting over the 
black objects, while in solemn battalions the 
penguins marched and countermarched along 
the water’s edge. 

Under the ciicumstances the view took the 
nature of an ironical jest at the hand of fate. 
Here at last was the very object of our search, 
but mocking us in the very act of discovery. 
A beauteous, slow-sloping shallow of lovely 
sand, and no outlet to the sea. The ideal place 
to launch our cutter, and the barrier of the 
cliffs lay between us and the outer ocean im- 
penetrable. 

I swore softly to myself as I realized these 
things, cursing the luck that dogged me mad- 
deningly. Fate had evidently willed that I 
should not escape from my jealous torments 
yet awhile. 

Gerry broke the silence. 

“This place means to keep us now it’s got 
us, you may depend upon it,” said he. “That’s 
what I call a pretty strict blockade of their 
only port,” and he pointed down the fiord to 
the barrier at the far end where the rocks were 
piled across the entrance. 

“The earthquake may have done that,” said I. 


A CLOSED DOOR 


213 


earthquake may have done it,” said Gar- 
licke, “but not the one of three nights back. I 
can see great patches of lichen on the rocks. 
It’s centuries old — that great shutting of the 
door. Look at the banks of seaweed across 
it.” 

Gerry had turned to stare up the ravine that 
rose from high-water mark to the mountain- 
side. Suddenly he stretched across to Garlicke 
for the glass, and began examining the far 
crags. Nothing that moved was visible to the 
naked eye, but as he put down the telescope he 
whistled softly. 

“It’s either an extraordinary coincidence or a 
blessed funny thing,” he ejaculated. 

“What?” we demanded. 

“The black line that runs across the cliff up 
there,” he went on. “We shall find that that’s 
coal, when we get nearer, I don’t mind bet- 
ting. Through the glass I can distinctly see 
the shine and gloss of it, and it’s perished 
and crumbled away as coal would— in square 
lumps.” 

“Well,” said I irritably, “what if it is? Why 
shouldn’t there be coal? Nothing would sur- 
prise me less than to find that those black 
things upon the beach are patent stoves. Noth- 
ing would be too outrageous for this land of 
sudden upheavals.” 

He looked at me with much contempt. 

“Lessaution’s estimate of your intelligence 
was not far out,” he remarked. “Do you mean 
to say you have forgotten the coal the May- 


214 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ans found— the ‘stone with fern marks upon it’ 
that burnt — the stone, that is, not the fern 
marks? Well, there’s your seam of stone or 
coal or whatever you like to call it, and here’s 
the very spot on which the Mayans landed 
three hundred years ago. That’s the place 
where the Beast munched up poor Alfa and 
Hardal. The penguins which they knocked 
over and roasted — or rather their descendants 
— are there, and this is the intricate passage 
by which they found harbor, only the rocks 
have barred the entrance. There isn’t a doubt 
about it.” 

I looked around me, and there seemed every 
possibility that he was right. All these cir- 
cumstances dovetailed into one another most 
remarkably — the coal, the sandy shore, the pen- 
guins, and what not. The only thing wanting 
to complete the picture was the ‘‘Great god 
Cay with mouth agape,” and though for the 
time being he was not on view, we knew only 
too well that he was a very unpleasant reality. 
So down the red-hot cliffs we scrambled for a 
nearer examination of these possibilities, and 
after half-an-hour’s toil by ways devious and 
hard to find dropped upon the shining sands 
at the bottom. 


CHAPTER XIV 
IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 

As we arrived our noses were greeted with 
a most stupendous and enwrapping stench. 
It took me just about the twentieth part of 
a second to realize that the black objects that 
lay above the tide mark were the half-dismem- 
bered bodies of sea-lions, the intestines protrud- 
ing black and decayed upon the smeared and 
oily sand. Round about them were tramplings 
and churnings of the mud, and spreading away 
across the landward rubble to the entrance of 
the ravine were great sloppy paddings— the 
slow trudge of some ponderous and long-nailed 
quadruped. 

It was almost with gratified expectation 
that I recognized the trail of the Horror of the 
canon. Here doubtless was his feeding-ground, 
his private abattoir^ where he came down to 
prey upon the sleeping sea-lion, even as cen- 
turies before he had lumbered down upon Alfa, 
Hardal, and probably many another of those 
hapless immigrants besides. Here as in a trap 
he found his prey. Often one could suppose 
the sea-lions passed through the sea entrance 
at the far end of the bay, failed to find exit, 
and, tired with wearily threshing round their 


216 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


prison walls, landed to take their siesta in the 
sun. Here asleep they fell unawares into his 
maw, or, surprised in the rock-ringed pool, gave 
him many a jovial hunt in the clear depths be- 
tween the cliffs.* 

At the far side of the beach were other lumps, 
embedded in the sand. To them we strode and 
began to dig at them with our axes. It scarcely 
came as a surprise when the powdery silt fell 
aside to disclose timbers sticking up gauntly 
from below — the worn joists and ribs of some 
stranded vessel. 

One or two of the great timbers — carven and 
decorated by hands long dead — were now wind- 
planed and worn by the sand drift, and slanted 
deep into the pebbles. We shovelled and scraped 
to trace them further. Below the soil they 
rounded almost at right angles, and we un- 
covered one of them at full length. It meas- 
ured a good forty paces — the keel, as we could 
but suppose, of some Mayan bark, sole rem- 
nant of what had been a gallant ship in the 
squadron of that lost and hapless race. 

We scratched and delved, but nothing further 
than dried wood splinters did we discover. 
Finally we decided to explore the ravine for 
traces of the Mayans, or for the track of the 
great Beast. This latter was plain as a cart 

*Lord Heatherslie makes a mistake here. Professor 
Lessaution’s subsequent researches proved “the god Cay” 
to be without doubt Brontosaurus excelsus, remains of 
which have been found in the Jurassic formation of Colo- 
rado. It w^as purely a land animal. — F.S. 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


217 


trail on the softer ground, but soon faded and 
was lost among the rubble. 

We felt no fear of consequences should we 
suddenly unlair the monster, for though the 
walls of the canon were steep, they were 
broken by ledges. Up these we could skip swift- 
ly enough, while he, with his ungainly body, 
would be unable to follow. So up the loose, 
rattling pebbles we toiled to draw near by de- 
grees to the top, where the ravine passed into 
a scar of the mountain ridge, and then sinking 
rapidly, clove its way deep among the spurs 
and gullies of the far side. 

At this point the immensity of the glacier we 
had crossed that morning was apparent. It 
stretched away westward in broad, horizon- 
touching acres of snowfield. Through another 
cleft a branch of it sank into the valley below 
us. Far down we could see a streamlet issue 
from its foot. From the heights above, the 
tumble of crevasses converged in the narrows 
like the handle of some huge fan. It smote 
into the gorge at its straitest, the brook pools 
glinting away between the rocks. On the spur 
between the valleys was broken rubble dotted 
with great boulders. Above all, in sunlit, cloud- 
like purity the snow crest hung majestic. Out 
in the distance, seen through the tunnel-like 
formation of the cliffs, the sea glanced and 
gleamed, flecked with white bergs to the far 
horizon. 

It was the sight of this last that brought 
us up all standing. It seemed a trifle astound- 


^18 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ing to be confronted with the sea again when 
we had thus turned inland, and for some few 
moments we debated on the problem unavail- 
ingly. Then as I gazed round me various things 
seemed familiar. 

In an instant the explanation came. We were 
standing in the very canon up which we had 
marched the previous day, only we were en- 
tering the other end. No wonder that I had 
thought I had seen before that blue glacier foot 
and that chain of broken pools down the 
stream. I had — not twenty-four hours before, 
too — but from the other side. Our ship and the 
sunk lake basin were on a great promontory. 
We had followed the circle of the eastern shore 
and turned inland. Thus we had cut across 
the cape as the great fissure did — almost at 
right angles. If we had followed the canon the 
previous day we should have attained to the 
very spot on which we stood. 

It was evident that the glacier, into the re- 
cesses of which we had penetrated, and on the 
edge of which the ruined temple hung, was a 
branch of the one we had crossed an hour or 
two back. Amidst this identical chaos of boul- 
ders we had watched the wounded beast dis- 
appear, and from some unseen cave or cranny 
he might now be spying us with gloating eyes. 
I stared round me apprehensively, but nothing 
moved to break the long waste of gray rock 
and virgin ice. I turned to explain my discov- 
ery to my companions. 

It did not take them long to recognize the 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 219 

familiar landmarks when I pointed them out, 
and they at once agreed with me that it was 
useless to carry further our quest for a beach. 
It was borne upon us with great conviction 
that the cliff barrier here stood just as remorse- 
lessly between us and the sea as it did on the 
western side of our lake. We might, therefore, 
as well give up at once all thought of launch- 
ing our boat in the ordinary manner. With 
the endless line of crags stretching for miles in 
either direction, it but remained to essay the 
lowering of it by davits or windlasses down 
the precipice, to chance its escaping uncrushed 
by the floating floe. For the present we set 
gloomily back across the glacier to carry news 
of our discovery to our friends. 

We roped up as we left the cliffs, proceeding 
gingerly upon our way. The crevasses honey- 
combed the ice at every step ; some we bridged 
with our poles; some we jumped unhandily; 
some, too broad for either leaping or bridging, 
we rounded by circuitous ways which took us 
far out of our dead point for home. At this 
height upon the glacier slopes we found the 
passage far more difficult and broken than 
upon the lower levels we had crossed in the 
earlier morning. 

It was after a couple of hours of hard work, 
that, with red and glistening faces, we found 
ourselves within a few score feet of the further 
side. We stopped to mop our streaming brows 
and to congratulate ourselves on the conclu- 
sion of the hardest part of our labors. I pro- 


220 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


duced my flask, at which the others smiled ap- 
provingly. 

I took an inspiriting pnll, handing it on to 
Garlicke, who was roped between Gerry and 
myself. He took it with unfeigned gratitude, 
and sucked at it sensuously, bestowing a wink 
at Gerry over the rim. The latter observed 
him earnestly as the flask tipped gradually 
higher, and then, dropping his axe upon the 
ice, strode towards his friend with a very un- 
benignant air and an outstretched hand. The 
axe fell with its point buried in the rough sur- 
face at Garlicke’s feet; the blade on the oppo- 
site side of the handle was uppermost. 

“Kindly leave a saltspoonful,” said Gerry irri- 
tably. “I happen to be just about as thirsty 
as you.” 

Garlicke turned slowly, the bottle still glued 
to his lips. He winked again with an indescri- 
bably annoying slyness. Gerry — with a touch of 
temper, it must be owned — snatched at his 
hand. Garlicke, with mock ferocity, warded 
him off 

There was a crackling sound as Gerry’s foot 
burst in an ice-bubble, and he stumbled. He 
rocked forward to fall prone beside a crevasse 
edge. The tense cord fell dead upon the keen 
blade of the axe set so rigidly uppermost. 

There was a hum and a flick as the rope 
parted, the two released ends springing apart 
like rent elastic. Gerry gave a wild scrabble at 
the glass-like, elusive surface, and shot like a 
flash into the yawning gap. There was a yell 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


221 


and a fierce rush from Garlicke, and I instinc- 
tively dug my heels into a crevice, bracing myself 
starkly to meet his sudden pull. I thrust my 
own axe-point into the ice, buttressing myself 
upon it. But for this three bodies would have 
been racing into the womb of the ice-hill instead 
of one. 

A dull thud came echoing up from the dark 
shadows beneath us; a few glassy splinters 
crackled and pattered downward ; then came a 
silence broken only by the throb of our pulses 
as they sang dull and muffled in our ears. 

Garlicke was as one possessed. “My God, 
my God,” he shrieked, “I’ve murdered him — 
murdered him. What am I to do? What am I 
to do? Speak, you fool,” he yammered, “tell 
me what I’m to do — to do,” and his voice rose 
to a scream, while he shook at my coat tem- 
pestuously. “Don’t tell me that we can’t reach 
him. My God, I shall go mad,” and he flung 
himself down upon the ice, tearing at it with 
bruised and bleeding fingers as he chattered 
hysterically. “For God’s sake, Heatherslie, say 
there’s hope — that we can get him up. We 
must — we must. Lord, have mercy upon me; 
what am I to do?” and he leaned desperately 
over the crumbling edge, peering hopelessly 
into the depths. 

Do you know the horrible, leaden, choking 
pain that leaps up and takes you by the throat, 
strangling you in a very fog of horror, when, 
suddenh^, swiftly, in the midst of light and 
laughter, the Great Shadow falls between you 


222 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WAUL 


and one at your very side? When your heart 
swells with quivering pulses that shake your 
flesh? When your eyes burn and the deafness of 
despair is in your ears ; when your knees rock, 
and the guides and thews within you string 
themselves like cords against your tense nerves? 

Those of you who have been in like case to 
mine can realize what I felt, when I saw the 
friend who had been to me as a brother, snatched 
into the darkness of that cold pit. You of the 
majority, who have stood in no such brain- 
wrenching mist of terror — to you no words can 
describe it. Those two seconds stand out redly 
scarred against the map of my life. They 
seemed ages untold of cruel anguish. 

The strain of Garlicke’s weight had nearly 
knocked all the breath out of my body, but I 
managed to swing him to his feet. 

“Oh, you fool, you — you, what are you?” I 
gasped. “Pull yourself into the semblance of a 
man. Race to the ship for help. Get ropes. 
Run, you fool, run,” and I thrust him from me 
roughly as I sat down panting. 

He tottered across the few yards of ice be- 
tween us and the rocks, and began to reel un- 
steadily down the slopes toward the great 
basin and the ship. As he disappeared, and the 
breath began to slide back into my cramped 
lungs, I seized my axe and hewed myself a 
standing-place beside the crevasse. Then I lay 
down upon my face, my head and shoulders 
outstretching far above the blue gulf, and set 
myself to listen with hopeless ears. 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


223 


The hard damp silence of a vault was over 
all. No vestige of a sound was there, but the 
chill drip of the melting ice, and far away out 
of the distance the half-heard break of waves 
upon the sea-cliffs. Now and again the wail of 
a tern or the call of a gull broke jarringly 
across the stillness, but from the grave below 
came nothing — no smallest sound to poise a 
hope upon; only the hush of death and the 
ceaseless drip. 

Yet — was it the self-mesmerism of a hope that 
would not be denied? — so faint that it left the 
merest echo of a tremor in my ears, a tiny 
sound seemed to float up from the depths. I 
called aloud. I shrieked to a fierce unnatural 
falsetto in my excitement. I struggled despe- 
rately to pierce the dulling thicknesses of ice. I 
strained hazardously across the gulf in my 
agony to listen, listen, listen for the ghost of a 
reply. Still no answer came; only the pitiless 
drip pattered on monotonously. I pictured it 
falling on Gerry’s cold, upturned face. 

I struck savagely at the opposite wall of the 
crevasse. I cut a cranny and thrust the point 
of my axe-handle in it. Then leaning on the 
head I hung out over the depths, my shoulders 
almost half-way across the cleft. 

There was a jerk as the sharp point snapped 
through the brittle support. My head plunged 
forward, hitting with tremendous force the 
smooth, blue surface beyond me. A thousand 
stars and planets flashed before my eyes, 
spreading from a core of foaming light. Then 


224 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


swart and sudden as the night closes over a 
tropical lightning flash followed darkness and 
insensibility. 

******* 

I blinked curiously, groping with owl-like 
eyes in the gray-green light that swathed me. 
Before me rose a slope of ice — a gleaming hill 
blue with the cold azure of undying frost. The 
smooth surface shone duskily; the twilight fell 
upon it from above in uncertain patches. Be- 
hind and above me was a curtain-like over- 
shadowment of rock. 

To my right rose the columns and porticoes 
of a building, shaded and deepening into black- 
ness where the cloistered frontage retreated 
into the background. Close to my head, rising 
with gentle gradient from the pebbly floor, was 
a paved ascent to the main door of the build- 
ing. To the left was a dark emptiness, and 
bell-like out of the hollow distance came the 
tinkle of running water. 

A few yards away lay a man’s form-— face to 
earth and still. The forehead leaned upon the 
fore-arm ; the other hand was stretched abroad, 
as if grasping an unseen hold. The whole body 
had the pose of death as we find it when met 
with suddenness. In the tired apathy that fol- 
lows a great shock I stared upon it wearily — 
unthinking, unreasoning, seeing something of 
familiarity, but with listless inability tp follow 
the crude remembrancing of my brain. 

As intelligence grew slowly back to me I 
struggled weakly and sat up. It was as in a 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


225 


long-forgotten and half-remembered vision that 
I knew Gerry’s brown shooting- jacket and his 
greasy field-boots. With further recognition 
memory began to ooze back. 

Gerry had been upon the glacier with me. 
And Garlicke. And my flask. Gerry had wanted 
the flask. Well, he couldn’t have it now. I’d 
lost it. I tried wretchedly to remember how 
or where. Why, of course ! that was what Gar- 
licke had taken. That ice-hill, now, over there 
— just like the toboggan slide at Toronto two 
winters ago. I wondered if old Jim Paleriste 
was still aide. No; seen him in town since. 

Then there was that sweet little Oh, my 

God! Gerry had fallen in— fallen in — and I lis- 
tened — and the tern had shrieked just as I 
thought I heard something. Well, that was 
Gerry — must be — snoozing away over there on 
his face. And that building? Well — Why, of 
course, this was a dream. There was that 
absurd beast. That was part of a dream. Why 
on earth couldn’t I wake myself? Baines would 
bring my hot water directly. Beastly unpleas- 
ant; just as well to know it was a dream. I’d 
have another wink or two. Confounded wet 
and cold — and, by Jove, cord breeches on. In 
bed. And blood upon them. Ouf! how my 
shoulder hurt. And what a scratch upon my 
palm! 

A huge drop splashed from the roof upon my 
forehead. 

At the touch of the cold water, suddenly as 
the sunbeams rend the sea-mist, my senses 
15 


226 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


leaped back to me, and dread — sickening dread 
— took possession of my heart. 

I stared across intently at Gerry’s rigid limbs. 
So we had fallen together into the depths — into 
the cold that kills. He was dead, no doubt; a 
little struggle against the numbing cold, and 
I too should pass into the land beyond for- 
getfulness. We had found the ninth circle of 
the lost. 

I rose and touched and stretched myself 
warily. How my back and shoulders ached, 
and what a sharp pang ran through my ankle 
as I dragged myself across the floor. I knelt 
beside Gerry and turned his face to the light. 
It was white and hollow-cheeked ; his eyes were 
closed. I ran my hand beneath his coat and 
laid it above his heart. Was it still? — or was 
it my own anxious pulse that beat beneath my 
palm? 

No, there was a stirring — a fluttering, faint 
and scarce discernible, but the life-light still 
burned. I placed my eyeball before his parted 
lips. The out-draught of his breathing struck 
against it, though ever so lightly. I moved his 
arms. They were limp, but with no unnatural 
droop. Very, very gently, but perceptibly, his 
chest rose and fell again, and something like a 
sigh fluttered out from between his lips. There 
was a faint flicker of an eyelid, and his fingers 
twitched automatically at the pebbles. 

The worst of the overpowering weight of 
dread slid away from me hesitatingly. Per- 
haps after all Gerry was no more than knocked 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


227 


out of time— not injured fatally at all. I shout- 
ed into his ear; a tiny movement of the eyelid 
answered me. I raised his head, scraping the 
loose sand into a pillow beneath it. I took 
his hand and began to rub it briskly, clapping 
it against its fellow. A faint shade of color 
rose into his cheek; he sighed perceptibly. 
Again his eyelids fluttered, half closed again, 
and then opened wonderingly to their widest. 
He stared about him, his gaze wandering with 
a drowsy air of astonishment from point to 
point. His hand swept the floor, picking at 
the little stones, and his breathing grew louder 
and more regular. 

I called aloud his name, smiting him on the 
shoulder. He jerked a look at me from his 
drowsy eyes, frowned, made as if he would 
turn his head, and then a sudden faint con- 
sciousness seemed to return to him. 

“W’as’r matter?” he whispered indistinctly. 

“Good man,” I bawled joyously. “Wake up, 
wake up, old chap. Are you hurt? Feel your- 
self,” and I dragged him to a sitting posture. 

“W’as’r time?” he gurgled again sleepily. 

“Time! Hang the time. You’re not in bed. 
We’re in the glacier. Get up and feel yourself.” 

He scrabbled weakly at the ground, caught 
at my sleeve, and leaned against me. He stared 
at his surroundings, regarding the temple por- 
tico with desperate astonishment. Then the 
ice-hill, sinking down to our very feet, caught 
his eye. He turned to me with wild amazement 
in every feature. 


228 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“It’s a nightmare,” he declared. 

“No such luck,” quoth I, sadly. “We’re here 
right enough. The question is how to get out 
before we’re frozen stiff. Can you stand?” 

He staggered to his feet, still lurching against 
me, and began gingerly to press his limbs and 
ribs. He moaned eloquently as his fingers 
roamed about his battered bones, making fear- 
ful grimaces. 

“Ribs nearly bashed in,” he remarked, “but 
no other damage that I can discover, bar 
bruises.” 

“That’s all right. Now let’s hustle round 
and see if there’s any sort of way out. That 
stream over there must go somewhere, if there’s 
room to follow it. I can hear it tinkling away 
down some sort of channel.” 

In the direction in which I pointed the sides 
of overhanging rock and glacier converged till 
they almost met, forming a low tunnel which 
struck further into the blackness. It was from 
this burrow that the sound of running water 
came. 

Gerry looked at the dark entrance with much 
distaste. 

“Ugh,” said he, “filthy and cold it’ll be. 
Don’t you think ” 

Click, click, click, and he stopped his argu- 
ment to stare up to where something clattered 
above our heads. Gently, invitingly, a flask 
pattered into view, sliding down the slopes of 
the ice-hill at the end of a string. It hopped 
and jigged away most suggestively. We both 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


229 


gave a tumultuous yell of welcome, and dashed 
at it. I seized it, opened it, and poured half 
its contents down Gerry’s throat before he 
could make any demur. Then I took a good 
pull at it myself, smacking my lips with intense 
enjoyment. We clutched the string and tugged 
at it lustily, and those above tugged glad- 
somely and heartily back. Then I found an 
old envelope and began to scribble on it, using 
a rifle-bullet for pencil. 

“All right. Get a rope!” was the terse mes- 
sage I attached to the string, and we saw it 
flit upward when our pressure relaxed, watch- 
ing it disappear into the blue shadows of the 
ice-roof with indescribable sensations of relief. 

In a few seconds the yell of voices was borne 
down to us, faint as the chirp of a bird, but 
delightfully distinct, and we knew that our 
bulletin was received. Within a minute the 
flask dropped down for the second time — ^full 
too — and on it another bit of paper showed 
white and welcome. The inscription was — 

“Have no rope long as this string. Parsons 
has gone down for another to splice. Hope all 
well.”— S.G. 

We knew that this meant a wait of half-an- 
hour at the least, and we took another pull at 
the spirit to fortify ourselves against the cold, 
which was wrapping us creepily in its embrace. 
Then we stamped and tramped violently round 
the cavern once or twice to enliven our circu- 
lations, and this brought us face to face with 
the stone portico at the back of the cave. We 


230 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALE 

halted before it to stare at each other inquir- 
ingly. 

I nodded ; then together we sauntered up the 
steps and stood in the entrance. 

The temple was square fronted, with an oval 
doorway; along the facade ran pillared clois- 
ters. It was built of carefully cut and morticed 
stones, hewn — as we could plainly see by the 
gaps— from the cliff behind us. Upon the twelve 
great pillars of the portico were decorated 
pilasters, chiselled with a clean nicety in the 
hard stone. They gave evidence of a patient 
skill and an artistic conception beyond the 
average. Within their shadow was a pave- 
ment, whereon a ihosaic of graceful lines and 
figures entwined themselves. Centrally opened 
the portal. 

The light filtered dimly through the entrance, 
and as we stood upon the threshold the interior 
was black and mysterious before us. As our 
eyes grew more accustomed to the gloom, and 
the shapes of things defined themselves in the 
twilight, we discerned the grandeur and the 
horror of the place. 

The interior was round — in shape something 
like the Roman Pantheon — and along the cir- 
cling walls ran long inscriptions in the Mayan 
symbol, twisted in varying folds and weavings 
of devices. The floor was wide and thick with 
dust. The disturbance of our footsteps made 
gaps in this, showing the smooth, hard-blocked 
granite that paved it. It rang hollow beneath 
our feet, when the nails of our shooting-boots 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 231 

reached it through the carpet of powdery re- 
fuse. 

At the far end was a towering erection, 
dominating the emptiness, dimly shadowing 
through the dusk. It was not till we ap- 
proached within a yard or two of it that we 
knew it for a graven similitude of the great 
Beast. It stood in a sort of chancel of the 
building, looming high upon a rough majestic 
mass of granite. This pedestal — a boulder 
without any mark of hammer or chisel appar- 
ent upon it — filled one side of the sanctuary, 
and the image — carved from virgin rock-b- 
reached to the domed roof. 

Every loathsome detail of the Thing was re- 
produced with a skill most marvellous. The 
horrid foot-webs with claws aspread were 
there; the long, lowering neck; the malignant 
head fiendishly erect ; the saw-like, serrated tail ; 
the horrible dewlap ; the filthy bloatings of the 
carcass ; the thick legs, with bunches of muscle 
staring harshly out of the stone fore-arms. 
Below were inscriptions in the familiar symbol. 

Far up in the fiercely poised head were eyes 
that glinted evilly — eyes that licked up into 
themselves all the poor light of the dim vault 
and concentrated it into two glistening points 
of wickedness. They seemed to follow us with 
such poignancy that we shuddered. 

But the greater wonder and the heavier hor- 
ror lay not in this foul image, terrible though 
it was in its life-like imitation. 

Circling round the throned idol — symbol of 


232 . BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

the loathliest worship, as I suppose, and the 
cruellest that the world has ever seen — was a 
ring of brown and shrivelled objects. They 
were cloaked with rotting garments, and lean 
with the waste of centuries. They were mum- 
mified by time, but, in the undying cold, unde- 
cayed. It was the last worship of the priests of 
Cay, overwhelmed in the sanctuary, defying the 
long-drawn death of numbing famine in the 
presence of their god. 

We two drew very near together, and I laid 
my hand upon Gerry’s shoulder for mere sup- 
port of a warm and sentient body. The fog of 
our startled breathings went up steamingly in 
the air. It smoked like incense before a yet 
sacred shrine of evil. We gasped as those who 
seek fresh air in a stuffy atmosphere, and at the 
same time huddled to one another for warmth. 
Never in any other condition of heat or cold do 
I remember to have experienced a freezingly hot 
oppression. 

There were thirty of these poor hapless souls ; 
all were face to earth, with garments hanging 
about them by mere stillness of pose. Their 
hands were yellow and claw-like, and were 
spread abroad upon the pavement. Their faces 
were swathed in brown hoods that covered 
their features utterly. Their bony, shrunken 
outlines showed haggard through the musty 
rags that clothed them. 

We looked questioningly in each other’s eyes 
before we laid hands upon the rigid kneeling 
form nearest us. We raised the low-laid face 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


233 


from the floor and turned it towards the scanty 
light. 

The wrinkled features were drawn and crisp 
with the dryness of a hundred frozen years ; the 
deep-sunk eyes were blurred — the smoothness of 
the pupils dulled to roughness by the shrinking 
of the temporal muscles and nerves. As we 
moved the head, a tooth or two clattered on 
the floor from the dried, fleshless gums, and 
gleamed white against the dust. The arms, set 
stiffly in their parchmenty skin, flopped help- 
lessly abroad as we raised the body from its 
crouching position. The joints were tense as 
the bones. The whole body moved as one solid 
piece, as if it had been run into an invis- 
ible mould. Across the drawn forehead was a 
white band, and on it was broadly sealed 
the similitude of the great Beast. On the floor 
in patches remained a few rags of the texture 
of the rotten clothing. 

Silently we gazed on this luckless remnant of 
a long-forgotten religion and race; then the 
ghastliness of the thing crowded upon our 
nerves fearsomely. Reverently we placed the 
poor gaunt body in its original position, and 
turned hastily to the door. We shivered as we 
gained the portico, and I passed the flask to 
Gerry. At the moment he gulped at the spirit the 
rope came flapping and uncoiling down the ice- 
hill opposite, and slipped up almost to our feet. 

I sprang forward to catch it up^ and began 
briskly to knot a running loop at the end of it. 
Gerry eyed me with approval. 


234 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

“That’s right, old chap,” he remarked. “Up 
you go.” 

I wasted no time or words in argument, be- 
ing well aware that he would defend for half- 
an-hour if necessary his proposition that I 
should have the first chance of ascent. I merely 
smiled upon him compassionately, reeving a 
deft hangman’s knot. This done I flung myself 
suddenly upon my companion, threw the loop 
over his shoulders and drew it tight beneath 
his arm-pits. Then I yelled lustily, dragging at 
the rope with hearty tugs. 

Amid the faint echo of an answering shout 
from above, I had the pleasure of seeing my 
friend fly swiftly toward the roof of the cavern, 
using language which might well have melted 
the adjoining ice. In a very halo of cursing 
his legs disappeared into the intricacies of the 
ice-dome, his feet kicking extravagantly at 
space and dislodging an occasional icicle upon 
me like a malediction. There was silence, and 
I was left alone with the ceaseless drip and the 
dreamy tinkle of the underground waterway. 

I will own that for the few moments I was 
left companionless in the near presence of that 
musty ring of shrivelled corpses I felt as un- 
comfortable as I remember to have felt in my 
life. 

You must not forget that I was physically 
weak from the shock of my fall, and that my 
nerves had been wrung past tension point by 
my anxiety for Gerry. Then 3'^ou will under- 
stand that the drip, the purr of the stream 


IN THE NINTH CIRCLE 


235 


ripple, the gray-green light from above in the 
uncertainty of its shadowing, the knowledge of 
the gruesomeness behind me, and the vault-like 
atmosphere, combined to make me almost 
hysterical. I could have screamed aloud, but 
didn’t for reasons only known to my English 
birthright of prejudice and pride. 

I wrestled through these aeon-long instants 
of mental breakdown, and then there came the 
heartsome sound of a crack from above. I 
opened my eyes to see the rope fall anew upon 
the pebbly floor. With eager fingers I looped it 
over my shoulders, and with a mighty jerk 
gave the signal to haul away. So I fled cheru- 
bim-like up out of the glassy solitudes into the 
untainted air and the blessedness of the sun, 
and never have I rejoiced with more whole- 
souled gratitude in the same. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 

As I shot beamingly out into the wholesome 
light of day a cheer rang out, waking the cold 
echoes delightfully. More than half the ship’s 
company was ringing the crevasse mouth, Mr. 
Rafferty and half-a-dozen sailors hauling at the 
rope with a vigor that bespoke their entire 
satisfaction in the job. It was with a mighty 
tug that they finally yanked me on to the 
glacier, and I unwound myself and crawled on 
to the flat ice most thankfully. 

Gwen was there with Denvarre, and Vi was 
standing talking to Gerry, who leaned back 
luxuriously on a rug, enjoying the sunlight and 
the smiles of the ladies. Waller, his usual 
apathetic calm broken by an obvious air of 
relief, was the first to take my hand, and Les. 
saution, bandages and all, was ready to weep 
with a joy that I really believe was unaffected. 
He had already gleaned from Gerry a slight 
inkling of the wonders that lay beneath his feet, 
and was demanding to be immediately lowered 
into their presence'. His gratitude at our mar- 
vellous escape had a strong rival for the pos- 
session of his soul in the jealousy he felt that 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


237 


this notable discovery should have fallen to 
any one but himself. 

I think Gwen, happy as she may have been in 
her new-found love for Denvarre, could not 
altogether have forgotten that she and I, 
though we had never acknowledged it defi- 
nitely, had once been more than friends. Her 
face — I could but note it as I sped up from the 
mouth of the pit — had been white and anxious, 
and as I rolled unharmed from the edge to her 
feet, had flushed rosy red with what I could 
but hope was joy. She smiled at me as I rose 
to my feet, and shyly put her hand in mine, her 
eyes humid and wistful as she felt my answer- 
ing grasp. But her words were few. “Thank 
God” was all she whispered, as she drew back 
to let Lessaution fling himself upon me with a 
flood of gratulation and inquiry. 

We reasoned fluently with the Professor as he 
escorted us back to the ship, disclaiming any 
desire to compete with him in the realms of 
research, and explaining to what simple and 
unsought chance our discovery was due. No 
argument, however, would move him from his 
set purpose. He demanded that he should be 
lowered without delay int9 the Mayan hamlet, 
vociferating his determination with a volubility 
that drowned all reason in mere noise. Finally 
we compromised. We put it before him that 
the launching of the boat was the supreme need 
of the whole party, and would take all the 
power and ropes at our disposal. No one 
could be spared to attend to his gropings in the 


238 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


glacier. If he agreed to postpone his desires till 
the launch was accomplished, we on our parts 
solemnly promised that he, first of any, should 
descend into the mystic solitudes below, soli- 
tudes, which we represented, were still practi- 
cally unexplored. He gave a grudging assent, 
and thereafter quiet reigned. 

Gwen walked between Denvarre and me, and 
somehow a sense of discomfort seemed to hang 
about my companions. Despite my thumped 
understanding I thought that I was bearing 
myself not ingloriously in the conversational 
melee, but the interest they manifested in my 
recital seemed to lag. Denvarre was distinctly 
gloomy, and Gwen was so desperately vivacious 
that I easily understood that she was not 
listening, but was occupied with other and un- 
pleasant thoughts. I caught my breath as I 
wondered if by any possible chance they could 
have quarrelled, trying with all my might not 
to dwell on the possibilities that such a matter 
might have for myself. 

They seemed all right again at dinner, both 
of them, and Baines served a special effort to 
signalize our gveat deliverance. A bottle or 
two of Heidsieck made every one of a cheerful 
countenance, whatever feelings their hearts may 
have held, and we speedily forgot the gray 
shadow of borderland that had hung so heav- 
ily over two of us. 

After dinner we sat upon the deck in the 
starlight, and discussed coffee, cigarettes, and 
the chances of getting away. That these de- 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


239 


pended utterly on ourselves seemed entirely 
conclusive. A passing whaler was the tiniest 
of probabilities, nor would she be likely to 
sight any signal of ours on these desolate 
shores. True enough old Crum had a fair idea 
of our destination, but it would be many 
months before he would think it his duty to 
' send to look for us. Nothing obviously re- 
mained but to attempt the launch of the boat, 
and decide who should go in it. 

It was quite certain that the ladies could not 
face fifteen or twenty days in an open boat. 
If they could not go, Garlicke and Denvarre 
wouldn’t. Gerry was in no fit condition to 
face hardships after his knocking about, no 
more was I. The man to take charge then 
was Waller or Janson. 

Waller we felt was the man for the job, but 
on the other hand we had also a strong feeling 
that bereft of his society and counsel we should 
be like children without their nurse. We de- 
cided to put the case before him, leaving the 
decision to his own good sense and know- 
ledge. 

I did not think the men would refuse a chance 
to go if it was offered them. I felt confident 
that a sufficiency of them would prefer a cruise 
on open water, even in an open boat, to sit- 
ting longshore and hauling at hawsers for the 
entirely unprofessional object (from a seaman’s 
point of view) of bracing up what had become 
a land domicile. This especially would be so 
if the former procedure brought about a hope 


240 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


of eventually coming to a land of civilization, 
hard food, and good liquor — we had put them 
on an allowance of both — and away from hor- 
rifying fears of unknown and uncouth dragons. 
For Mr. Parsons had not been idle in his con- 
versational moments, and the details of our 
adventure in the canon had been painted by 
him with an unsparing wealth of imaginative 
incident. 

Waller picked his men, reporting to me that 
any one of the ship’s company would have 
jumped at the chance to go. This matter be- 
ing settled, it remained to arrange the prac- 
ticalities of the launch. Not only had we to 
drop our boat handsomely down a hundred 
feet of sheer cliff, but we had first to transport 
her bodily up the steep slopes of the basin be- 
fore us. Looking at the job made it seem no 
more likeable; but the next morning we rose 
betimes and flung ourselves upon the business. 

First of all we cut down the yacht’s top- 
masts and sawed them into rollers. We did 
this with a light heart, well knowing that we 
could never want to test our ship’s sailing qual- 
ities again. Then with levers we inserted theni 
under the cutter’s keel. This done we began 
to roll her proudly across the smooth rock floor 
— a transit we performed with consummate 
ease — and pointed her bows up the steep slope 
cliffward. 

Over the unavailing wretchedness of the next 
two days I must draw a veil. Shortly, we gave 
the business a very ample trial, and were thor- 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


241 


oughly beaten at the start. Tug as we would 
the task was entirely beyond us — vanquished 
us hip and thigh. The angle, which at first 
was moderate enough, increased to about for- 
ty-five degrees. The weight was about ten 
tons. If you would like to try the experiment 
we did, and test our physical inferiority, take 
to yourself a dozen other fools and try to drag 
a wheelless railway truck up Arthur’s Seat, 
for instance, on rollers. Then let me have a 
written statement of your experiences. If it 
doesn’t give points to many of the foremost 
writers of the impressionist school I shall be 
strenuously surprised. 

By the evening of the second day we had pro- 
gressed about two hundred and fifty yards, 
and the worst was still to come. We had ex- 
pended enough perspiration to float the boat, 
and had just paused to shove in the wedges 
behind the rollers while we rested. We did this 
carelessly. They slithered on the smooth stone, 
the rollers revolved smartly, and before we 
could arrest her progress with levers, the 
wretched cutter was half-way back to the bot- 
tom again, bumping and straining her timbers 
viciously. 

Gerry sat down and voiced the sentiments 
of the whole company at this point. He ex- 
plained that to him it was obvious that no 
less period of time than a century would suffice 
to see our labor approach completion. As the 
span of human life was now ordered, we were 
unlikely, any of us, to attain to this age. Why 
IG ' 


242 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

then waste time that might just as profitably 
be spent in twiddling our thumbs? He added 
comprehensive anathemas on any who should 
attempt to combat this opinion, and then re- 
lapsed into surly silence, while the panting 
crew waited apathetically for further develop- 
ments. 

Then Waller suggested that our present at- 
tempt being a failure, the plan for reducing the 
launch to sections should be tried. This we 
had resolved to leave as a last resource, from 
haunting fears that once dismembered, we 
might well fail to put her together again, the 
book of explanations supplied by her makers 
having been lost. I lifted my head wearily to 
meet his proposal, when my words were checked 
in the very utterance. 

A dull boom, sullen and muffled at first, but 
swelling with grating intensity to a thunder- 
ous crash, rolled and re-echoed down and 
around the gray rock basin that surrounded 
us. The cutter swayed and danced, hammer- 
ing and splintering the rollers under her. We 
ourselves fell in unstudied helplessness on the 
hard stone slabs. The earth quivered in our 
sight as the heat haze quivers in the June sun- 
light. A current of hot air swept over us, seem- 
ing to swamp us in murkiness. The little loose 
pebbles sang and clattered as they rolled down 
the slope, running together and leaping upon 
one another in little swirls and piles. A giant 
crag fell from the glacier foot. The roar of it 
slammed across the hollow ponderotisly, the 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


243 


splinters scattering on the hard flooring of the 
lake bed, shooting out and across the smooth 
granite in a thousand chips of glancing, flash- 
ing crystal. The sun glistened upon them glori- 
ously in many-hued, rainbow rays. Behind us 
a great pinnacle of basalt was flung from the 
peak, falling on the glacier with the crash of 
an artillery salute. A moan trembled out from 
the vitals of the riven glacier, as if from a pris- 
oned soul within. The impulse of the crushed 
ice billowed out a dark spate of water at its 
foot. 

Awe-inspiring as were these manifestations, 
they did not affect us as did one slighter, but 
close at hand. A grate and crack from below 
made us turn swiftly. The fissure across which 
our ship was buttressed with walls of boulder 
gaped widely. Into this sudden cleft the Ra- 
coon slipped to the level of her bulwarks ; the 
hawsers strained, tightened, thrummed tensely, 
and then snapped apart like the flick of return- 
ing thongs. The masts whipped to and fro 
quivering, and the stays shook uneasily. Then 
with a grinding of copper the ship sagged over 
and lay still, propped by the ragged edge of 
the rock. 

As we raced back across the lake bed towards 
her, a round, middle-aged shriek broke the still- 
ness ofthe after-quiet. Lady Delahay was vom- 
ited up from the saloon as Baines and the cook 
erupted from the galley. She stumbled across 
the deck, and, with the aid of the valet’s defer- 
ential hand, mounted upon the bulwarks. The 


244 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


rocks were now level with the stanchions, and 
she stepped upon them to sink down thereon 
in desolate helplessness, Baines hanging over her 
with well-bred but astonished sympathy. 

Gwen and Vi had been upon the heights 
above us, trying to sketch the line of needle- 
like pinnacles that crowned the ridge. Gwen, 
it appeared, had been engaged 'upon the very 
one that had fallen upon the glacier, and had 
been utterly stupefied, as it bowed toward her 
and then precipitated itself into the depths be- 
low. Both of them were dismayed beyond 
measure by the upheaval and the partial dis- 
appearance of the ship, and came flying down 
the slope, frightened to death by the roar and 
thrilling of the solid earth, confidently expect- 
ing further shocks and total engulfment. We 
met around Lady Delahay’s prostrate form 
amid much excitement. 

Nothing further occurred, but an oppressive 
silence seemed to have fallen over the land. 
The cries of the sea-birds melted out seaward, 
and not one of them showed far or near. The 
glacier stream had swept all its volume into 
that one great spout of a few minutes back, 
and not a single splash came from the empty 
opening in the ice. No sound was to be heard 
from the cliffs, though a minute or two before 
the fall and return of the surges had risen to 
us mellow and distinct. 

We climbed the slope to look abroad upon the 
sea. It was oily and glass smooth as quick- 
silver, and far west the glow of the sunset was 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


245 


beginning to show upon its bosom, but not 
clear and gleaming. It was lurid and suffused 
as with vapor mist. The floe was clustered in 
strange herdings, and ringed beside the larger 
bergs were floating splinters from their sum- 
mits. The dark lanes of water between the 
walls of ice were strangely regular — almost like 
the parallel lines of irrigation works. The usual 
motion of the unending swell had ceased ut- 
terly. 

Suddenly Rafferty gave a shout. 

“Saints in glory!” he exclaimed excitedly, 
“’tis the mountain that’s afire.” 

We wheeled round to face the peak behind us. 
The torn scar left by the unseated pinnacle 
showed hard and raw in the evening light. 
From the dip between the snow caps a thin 
column of smoke was rising into the still wind- 
less air, commencing straight as a lance, but 
mushrooming out over our heads a few hun- 
dred feet up as if in weariness of its own 
weight. 

It poured out of some new-hewn chimney in 
the rock relentlessly slow indeed, and lazily, but 
with a very business-like steadfastness. A few 
smuts were wafted to us, falling upon our 
clothes and faces. 

From that' moment a very large lump of de- 
spair began to settle upon my heart and stayed 
there. I began to fully realize the nature of the 
trap we were in. It must take days, work as 
we would, to get the boat up the slopes, put 
it together again on the top — even provided we 


246 BEYOND THE GREAT vSOUTII WALE 


didn’t break it in the process — and drop it in 
safety down the cliffs. Waller might with very 
great Inck get to the Falklands in three weeks. 
There might possibly be a ship there which 
would come to our rescue ; very probably there 
might not. Giving everything the very best 
possible chance of succeeding, we couldn’t get 
away from this horrible place under six or eight 
weeks. On the other hand, Waller might never 
reach the Falklands at all. Every hazard of 
sea and ice would be against him. If he got 
there he might never get back, for the berg 
might close. Our provisions might fail; the 
birds and the sea-lions would depart. The ship 
might sink further into the cleft and take our 
home and stores with her, for it was of course 
no more than likely that another earthquake 
shock would ensue. And above all this, there 
was the Horror of the canon prowling around, 
ready to interrupt our proceedings at any mo- 
ment. So beneath my breath I cursed the race 
of Maya, my besotted old ancestor, Crum, 
Gerry, Lessaution, and many other animate 
and inanimate influences that had brought 
about this disastrous expedition, and had 
landed us in this unspeakable plight. When I 
had thus softly vented my feelings upon the 
smut-filled air, forbearing open complaint as a 
bad ensample for the men, I turned to see 
what the others were thinking in the matter. 

There was a grim look on Gerry’s face. He 
too, I gathered, was beginning to understand 
what was meant by that black cloud which 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 247 

now rolled between us and the sun like some 
monstrous umbrella. Denvarre was looking at 
Gwen, and she, I gathered from the sudden 
motion of her face as I turned toward her, had 
but lately been staring at me, trying, I suppose, 
to understand what I thought of it. Garlicke 
eyed the phenomenon through his eye-glass, 
viewing it as if it was some second-rate per- 
formance which had to be endured, but equally 
to be depreciated. Lessaution gaped up at it 
open-mouthed ; he nodded like a mandarin, 
showing by his expression his complete satis- 
faction with these arrangements for further 
volcanic demonstrations. Vi looked on with 
placid astonishment, being by now used to 
vagaries in this strange land of topsy-turvy- 
dom, and not wishing to appear unnecessarily 
surprised. The members of the crew made 
unanimous use of the common adjective to 
opine that the smoke was sanguinarily droll, 
and at that they left it. Waller’s lips were com- 
pressed, though moving now and again in 
what I took to be sotto voce swearings. He 
shared no doubt with me a silent uneasiness 
that he preferred not to express. 

An earthquake is no joke. One has absolute 
belief in the stability of the ground beneath 
one’s feet — a belief which it takes much to 
destroy. When therefore you see the land 
shake like an ill-made jelly, when it grins and 
grimaces at you like a third-rate comedian, the 
traditions of a lifetime are undermined. That 
upon which you have planked the whole of 


248 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


your confidence deceives you. Faith is no 
longer a rock. Belfef of every kind is vain. 
Stability in leaving the earth leaves all else 
unstable, and your spirit dies within you. 
Nothing is impregnable or unassailable there- 
after. You are, to put it tersely, most horribly 
afraid. 

At any rate I was. For at least six weeks 
and possibly for a year we were to live under 
this shadow of death. The cave, that we had 
chosen as a refuge should the Beast crawl 
down upon us, had now become a possible 
death-trap more horrible than his maw itself 
The mountain was obviously volcanic, and as 
obviously was the cleft the result of volcanic 
action. Suppose it to close when we were in 
it. Like worms beneath a cart-wheel we should 
be crushed. Suppose it to suddenly widen. 
Like worms again should we be dropped into 
the very bowels of earth to be hopelessly cast 
away. 

■ So again I cursed my fate and those wh4> 
had been its arbiters, and assumed a cheerful 
countenance. 

‘T think that’s all for the present,” I re- 
marked courteously to the company at large, 
“so if you have seen all you require perhaps 
you’ll return to business.” 

They turned from their starings at the moun- 
tain, and Gerry chucked down the lever he still 
held with a surly air. 

“So we’re to start all over again?” said he. 

“Have you an3Thing else to suggest?” 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


249 


He found no answer but a grunt, and I ex- 
plained that Captain Waller’s proposition 
seemed the only feasible one. We must reduce 
the launch to sections, and carry them one by 
one to the cliff-top. I invited amendments, but 
none were forthcoming, and collecting spanners, 
we turned wearily to work again. 

By good luck the lost plan of construction 
turned up. It was ingenious, but fiendishly 
intricate, and it was hours before we properly 
mastered it. Then with wrenches and screw- 
drivers we flung ourselves upon the boat, cov- 
ering ourselves with dirt and wretchedness. 
This, however, only after stupendous wrang- 
lings over the writing and the interpretation 
thereof; in which wordy melee Gerry and Les- 
saution nearly came to blows, sneering over 
every mortice, and displaying directly opposite 
views concerning every nut and screw. 

Yet within the course of the next day, by 
superhuman exertions, we managed to dismem- 
ber the boat, and transport it in sections to the 
cliff-top. Here we found that the undoing of 
her was but child’s-play to the putting of her 
together again. During the next three days 
language, temper, and filthiness of person bore 
hideous rule, and discomfort enveloped us like 
a fog. 

Across these things I draw a discreet veil. 
Suffice it to say that on the evening of the 
third day, somehow or other, we had got the 
boat patched together and ready for lowering. 
Then we transported one of the ship’s wind- 


250 BEVOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

lasses up the rocks, and fixed it firmly with 
stanchions at the edge of the crags. We made 
a sort of cradle of hawsers. With immense care, 
with ropes thickly parcelled to avoid the fray- 
ings of the ledges, and with fenders firmly 
fastened to her sides, we were enabled to lower 
the cutter by slow degrees to the water, and to 
see her sit thereon unharmed. 

Rafferty slid down to her, and there were 
lowered to him tow, chisels, and a pot of 
pitch. With these he contrived to give her an 
inside calk where her seams leaked worst from 
her unhandy rebuilding. We left her floating for 
the night, with two men aboard to keep watch 
and watch lest the sea rising should dash her 
against the cliffs, or the floe bear down to nip 
her against the rocks. Upon the cliff-top two 
more camped to be within rope’s reach of the 
boatmen if need arose. 

No misfortune happily occurred, and the next 
day found us toiling up the cliff with stores for 
her provisioning, and water to fill her breakers. 
All these we passed down the swinging rope to 
Rafferty, who bestowed them in her lockers 
with nautical precision and neatness. Finally 
by eventide Waller and his six chosen associates 
descended, and amid the cheers of the assembled 
company took their places at the oars. 

Then with one last encouraging shout, and 
amid great wavings of handkerchiefs and caps, 
they pulled away steadily up the channels be- 
tween the pack-ice. 

We watched them as they gradually faded to 


THE MOUNTAIN WAKES 


251 


a black speck among the lanes in the floe and 
berg, and then disappeared to come into view 
again on the open water. There we saw their 
sail rise against the rays of the setting sun, 
and slant away slowly toward the horizon. 
At last even this vague dot upon the emptiness 
of ocean was not, and we turned away to seek 
the ship in the growing darkness. 

There was sadness and an irresistible pre- 
sentiment of eoming evil in my heart ; undefined 
it was; but none the easier borne. It was a 
silent and joyless meal we took before turning 
in, and I think every man of us sent up a 
prayer that night for our comrades on the 
open main ; whose lives bore double burden, in 
that, if evil befell them, we should all likewise 
perish. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OF CAY 

Though during the days of hard work, while 
the boat was being launched, we continued to 
live in the ship, we did so by compulsion of 
necessity alone, not having the time to seek 
another dwelling-place. Now the strain was 
over, we felt that it behoved us to seek 
shelter elsewhere, since another shock of earth- 
quake might easily destroy the Racoon and 
leave us utterly without abode in this land of 
desolation. Therefore we cast about for a 
refuge which should be stable enough to with- 
stand earthquakes, and also form a protection 
in case the Beast came down upon us. 

Several moderate-sized peaks rose from the 
glacier foot. They were precipitous in parts, 
but broken with ledges and crevices, making 
their ascent arduous, but by no means difficult. 
One of these, a mass of granite shaped some- 
thing like a pyramid with a flattened top, 
seemed to meet the case admirably. The 
breadth of its base made it unlikely that it 
would topple however much it might be shaken, 
and its summit was scarred with deep clefts. 
Any of these might be roofed over with a few 
planks to make a famous shelter. 




IT WAS THE LAST WORSHIP OF THF. PRIEST OF CAY. 

Page 253. 



THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OF CAY 253 

Janson and I made the ascent with some of 
the crew and made examination of the spot. 
We got up some timbers and a tarpaulin or 
two and soon arranged an excellent series of 
little cabins, sufficient to house the whole party 
if the need arose. We transported up to this 
eyrie a certain proportion of our provisions and 
stores, arranged hammocks for ourselves and 
cots for the ladies, and then felt that we had 
a satisfactory alternative abode if the ship 
should fail us. 

This being accomplished, we had time and 
opportunity to turn to less pressing matters. 
We set forth on the following morning therefore 
to investigate the matter of the Mayan temple 
beneath the glacier, anent which Lessaution 
had muttered many jealous words during the 
last six or seven days. For he openly declared 
that Gerry and I wished to keep the glory of 
this discovery intact, and were delaying his 
entrance into its mysteries of malice prepense. 

We took our ropes, poles, and a ladder to the 
cliff-top, found the crevasse, which we had 
marked with a cross hewn in the ice, and ac- 
cording to promise lowered the Frenchman 
first therein. I followed him, and in due order 
came Gerry, Deiivarre, and Garlicke. 

I found the little Professor trotting round the 
temple, exclamations of wonder and delight 
hurtling from between his teeth. His little arms 
waved, his little lean face beamed with scientific 
glee. His self-made dictionary and his gram- 
mar of the Mayan symbols was in his hands. 


254 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

In the pauses of his ecstasy he was trying to 
divine the inscriptions. Now and again he 
stopped to examine the prone figures of the 
shrivelled priests, turning them about and pick- 
ing at them with a minuteness that struck me 
as both hard-hearted and indelicate. Finally he 
dragged himself out of this haphazard abandon 
of discovery, and settling down before the base 
of the great pedestal, began to decipher the in- 
scriptions with serious attention. 

For some few minutes he sat silently between 
Gerry and myself, who held candles by him. 
He conned the twisted devices, turning from 
them to his note-book, and tracing out each 
symbol carefully. Suddenly signs of the greatest 
excitement manifested themselves. He jumped 
up with an exclamation, nearly upsetting 
both of us, and rushed round to the back of 
the image. Here he began to butt at the solid 
stone in a manner that seemed little short of 
imbecile. 

In the midst of these scrabblings a panel — as 
it seemed — ^gave beneath his hand; we stared 
wonderingly as a door slid open at his very 
feet. 

Two steps were revealed, dropping down into 
a chamber in the stone. Into the blackness of 
this vault our friend flung himself, chattering 
furiously in French, without waiting to be 
offered a light. We only stayed for an addi- 
tional candle to be lit and then followed him 
smartly. 

It was a small dark room, and without exit 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OF CAY 255 

to the air save by the way we had entered. 
Round the sides of rock-hewn wall ran a slab. 
Upon it were arranged various basons, salvers, 
spits, and other sacrificial instruments to which 
we could give neither names nor use. But what 
made our eyes sparkle and our breath come 
short and ecstatically, was the fact that each 
and all of these outlandish vessels shone yellow 
and lustrous in the candle-light. They were in 
no degree discolored by age or by damp. At 
the which we knew that here indeed we had 
fallen upon the Mayan booty of which my 
uncle had spoken — “the ancestral treasures of 
that hapless race.” 

We stared with greedy eyes upon this hidden 
hoard. With awesome fingers we touched and 
handled the beakers, the basons, and the curi- 
ous two-pronged forks and skewers. All bore 
traces of use, but we were at a loss to account 
for the jagged notches in the handles of some of 
the sword-like spits. They leaned against the 
rocky ledge, arranged in exact order along the 
floor. At the upper part of each were wavering 
scars in solid metal; we might have imagined 
them to be decorative patterns, but for their 
scratchiness and irregularity. I took one in my 
hands and examined it carefully. 

It had a hilt about half-a-foot long at the 
thickest end. It was just below this that the 
dents eat into the metal. I caught hold of 
Lessaution by the arm to demand his explana- 
tions of this matter. 

At first he contemned my curiosity, explain- 


256 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ing that matters of much greater interest de- 
manded his attention. He ran his fingers over 
the criss-cross work, and suddenly shuddered, 
handing the thing back to me with a repellent 
gesture. 

“It is explained there,” he said, pointing to 
the device that ran above the ledge. “Those 
are the rituals of sacrifice. It is necessary to 
slay the victim according to the religion of Cay. 
So they stab the sword through the shoulder 
and pierce the lung, and the victim dies slowly 
— very slowly, and he calls for long. So they 
think the god is well pleased. Then the poor 
people who die, they are in agonies — ah, so 
great a pain, and they bite and snap at the 
handle with their teeth. So here we see the 
marks. It is not nice — that, no it is of the 
most horrible. But what would you? They 
were brutes, this people, but oh, so ancient,” 
and he shrugged his shoulders as if much might 
be forgiven to a people who had conducted 
their devilries from time immemorial. 

I dropped the thing with a shiver and a ting- 
ling of my fingers. Brutes they were, indeed, 
these fearsome Mayans of the centuries of long 
ago. I could only give fervent thanks that 
they were not alive to welcome us to these 
savage shores. I could well imagine the de- 
light that would be theirs in spitting us on 
their horrible prongs, and leaving us to slow 
agony, tickling, as they would doubtless be- 
lieve, their god’s ears with our delightful tor- 
tures. And if they had not left us to pant out 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OP CAY 257 

our lives before this beastial image, we should 
have been offered up alive to the monster him- 
self, to meet a swifter doom, perhaps, but one 
as fearful. 

I asked him how he was so sure of the mat- 
ter. He explained that the whole of the de- 
vices that ran round the walls were the de- 
tailed dogma and rubric of the worship of Cay. 
Not only did these give full directions for sac- 
rificial orgies, and prescribe particularly the 
transfixing of the victims in the manner spoken 
of, but also alluded to the keeping alive of these 
tormented wretches — I am only quoting from 
what he translated — with various drugs, the 
names of which he was unable to understand. 
The inscription laid stress on the fact that the 
cries of these unfortunates were beloved of the 
god, and that, therefore, they were to be pro- 
longed as far as possible. 

It was only to be considered natural that the 
worship of such a filthy monstrosity should 
breed degraded cruelties, but I puzzled my head 
to think how Mayans in Central America 
could have possibly divined the existence of 
anything resembling this antediluvian Horror 
in the Antarctic Circle. I questioned Lessau- 
tion on this point also. 

He said that his researches had led him to 
think that the last home of the Mastodon 
had been in Central America, and that before 
he became extinct he might have become the 
holy beast of the Mayan religion, much as the 
bull is to the Hindoos. He went on to explain 
17 


258 BEYOND THE GBEAT SOUTH WALL 


his theory that as by lapse of time the huge 
beast became a memory and a myth, he rose 
from being a S3rmbol of the godhead to being 
confounded with the god himself. His propor- 
tions had probably been exaggerated by half- 
forgotten rumor, and with his size had grown 
his sacredness. To make themselves strong the 
priesthood had invented the human sacrifices, 
by which, doubtless, they could remove their 
special antipathies or heretics. 

It was not surprising, he added, that the 
Mayans, born and nurtured in the service of 
this superstitious horror, should conceive the 
Dinosaur, when he thus descended upon them, 
to be their god in very deed. We must also 
reckon the effect their miraculous^ bringing to 
this desolate coast would have upon them. 
There was no doubt that they had frequently 
striven to do their divinity honor by human 
sacrifices, and that one of their first acts must 
have been the building of this temple under the 
shadow of the overhanging rock. 

It was to be supposed that the glacier had 
been diverted from its former channel by some 
earthquake shock, and had poured upon the 
building from above, bringing to utter destruc- 
tion the town that had stood round it, the 
only exceptions being the house we had found 
upon the mountain-side, and the one Parsons 
and I had discovered in the glacier. This last 
had been saved by the shielding cliff above it, 
though walled in by impenetrable thicknesses 
of ice, 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OF CAY 259 

The priests of Cay, evidently fanatic to the 
last, had seen no chance of escape. They had 
stored away their golden vessels, swept and 
garnished their sanctuary, and then lain down 
in grim hopelessness to die at the feet of their 
god. Swiftly numbed by the overpowering cold, 
without provision or proper clothing, they had 
passed away in silent submission to the decrees 
of fate, and probably without much feeling or 
pain. Lessaution surmised that the lone corpse 
Parsons and I had stumbled upon in the other 
dwelling was the remains of some unfortunate 
wretch who had been longer fortified by food 
and raiment, and who had fought the cold 
with full knowledge of the ultimate issue. So 
in solitude and great fear he had met his death. 

I pondered these ideas of the Professor’s while 
we collected together the vessels of the sanctu- 
ary. We roped them up in heaps, and trans- 
ported them to the foot of the ice-hill. Then 
we signalled to Rafferty, whom we had left 
above in charge of half-a-dozen of the sailors, 
and had the pleasure of seeing our trove whizz 
up into the sunshine, to be bestowed finally 
in the lockers of the ship, there to await the 
possibilities of our ultimate rescue. 

As the last sheaf of spits disappeared into the 
gloom of the roof, we turned for further explo- 
rations. Lessaution held— and we felt that there 
might be something in it— that by following 
the course of the ice-stream that tinkled into 
the channel at the extreme end of the cave, we 
might chance upon other remains of the Mayan 


260 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


village, or at any rate find more relics of their 
community. Not wishing to leave any chance 
untried of discovering all we could of this strange 
people’s habitation, we lit dips, took one apiece, 
and crawled into the mouth of the waterway. 

It was low-roofed and narrow, and we groped 
and splashed along it like rats in a sewer. The 
light played and spangled on the ice walls, and 
the gurgle of the ripples and our splashings 
re-echoed hollow and gloomily. A draught 
sang back into our faces, making the candles 
sputter noisily. We thought that we must be 
approaching an outer entrance, though no light 
came through the ice. We wondered if by any 
chance we were in any communicating by-way 
of the cavern that Parsons and I had first ex- 
plored. 

Suddenly the ice faded from about us, and 
with the falling splash of a small cascade the 
rivulet ran into an opening in a rock wall 
which faced us. 

This we took to be without doubt the over- 
hanging side of the mountain which backed the 
basin in which lay our ship. We peered down 
the tunnel, and seeing the fall to be but a foot 
or two ventured in. For the first fifty yards 
the way was straight enough, but then began 
to turn and twist deviously, narrowing, though 
it grew higher. We easily understood that the 
water had worn a way through the granite by 
eating out a lode of softer mineral. We were 
enabled to walk erect, though I heard Lessau- 
tion grunt complainingly behind me as he 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OP CAY 261 

squeezed through the narrows, where the sides 
reached out to one another sharply. 

A couple of hundred yards more, and a turn- 
sharper than any we had yet passed— whipped 
us round almost in our tracks. Before I could 
realize it we were striding out into a great hall 
in the granite, and the stream was almost lost 
in the sandy floor. 

With the disappearance of the reflecting walls 
the darkness seemed to swallow the thin light 
of our candles utterly. A heavy effluvia-like 
smell hung in the air. In the act of wheehng 
round to speak to my companions I tripped. I 
plunged forward, grasping the elusive sand, 
and ploughing a groove in it with my chin. 

My candle went out as I struck the ground, 
but before its light snapped into nothingness I 
saw beside my face five long yellow objects 
spreading out ghastlily distinct upon the dark 
floor. Looking back I saw the obstruction 
over which I had stumbled begin to roll slowly 
from between me and the lights of my com- 
panions. It was silhouetted in irregular dents 
and jaggednesses against the dim illumination. 
I also saw the long yellow gleams move linger- 
ingly from beside me in the twilight. 

A yell went up from the others, and an odor 
still more . pungent assailed my nostrils. I 
heard the slow, lurching sound of a heavy body 
churning the silt of the floor. But it needed not 
that to tell me in what plight I was. We had 
penetrated to the very lair of the Monster. I 
had fallen headlong across his tail as it 


262 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


stretched in my path. Beside me was his 
webbed foot; my face nearly touched his 
clammy nails. 

He was turning— turning— turning ; in an- 
other second his huge neck would swing round 
upon me; I should be a mere swelling in that 
monstrous throat. 

My knees were palsied by a terror that 
scarcely allowed me to rise. My joints were as 
water within me. If ever man realized the ter- 
rors of nightmare in the flesh, I did so during 
those two fearful seconds when I scrambled to 
my feet, and raced across the ten yards that 
separated me from the mouth of the tunnel in 
the rock. I leaped into it like a rabbit before 
the greedy jaws of a terrier. 

The others were already jammed in its nar- 
row recesses. As I joined them the last light 
fell into the stream with a hiss. Kicking, reel- 
ing, panting, snatching at each other and at 
the rocks, we fought along that pipe-like pas- 
sage, every nerve in our bodies tingling with 
expectant terror. My hair bristled on my head 
as I heard the snap of those grim jaws behind 
me, and for one awful moment I felt the horri- 
ble breath sing past my cheek. I ducked to 
very earth, and at the same moment felt the 
rasp of the eager tongue upon my heel. Calling 
aloud in abject terror I plunged forward, bear- 
ing down Gerry and Lessaution with me. We 
struggled together in the darkness, splashing up 
a little stream, and wallowing in the turbid 
mud, while above our very heads, it seemed. 


the temple and the lair of cay 263 

we could hear the hiss and pant of the strain- 
ing lips. On hands and knees we jostled and 
crawled in the darkness. 

As we drew away from the sounds behind 
us, I managed after a nervous effort or two to 
strike a vesta. The match sputtered, flared, 
and then burnt up steadily. Lessaution was 
still grasping his extinguished dip, and thrust 
the wick into the flame. As it took fire he held 
it up, and in its steady light we saw the near- 
ness of our escape. 

Not ten yards away the long neck strained 
and weaved desperately, bowing towards us 
with frantic efforts. The wicked green eyes 
flamed, and the teeth snapped and chattered 
greedily. The murky breath from between 
them flooded the cavern noisomely. The whole 
horrible scene stood out in frightful distinctness 
against the background of dark rock. 

Then the dip-flame reached Lessaution’s fin- 
gers, and with a curse he dropped it. The fall 
of the darkness upon that brief but all too vivid 
ghmpse of horror unmanned us all. With a 
gasp we turned and fled recklessly into the 
darkness of the waterway without waiting for 
a light, paddling and splashing through the 
pools, tripping each other up, reeling, wrestling, 
smiting and bruising our limbs against the 
rocks. Finally with bleeding fingers, and wet 
with perspiration and roof-drip we stumbled 
orut into the dimness of the temple cave, pant- 
ing, dishevelled, like whipped curs, coughing 
still with the vile stench of that fearful kennel, 


264 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

shivering yet with the narrowness of our es- 
cape. 

With broken sentences and half-coherent words 
we arranged the order of our ascent, and 
were hauled up one by one. With grateful 
lungs and dazzled eyes we greeted the freshness 
of the glacier slopes, though it was with de- 
jected mien we slunk back to the ship. We 
sought victual, and later, tobacco, discussing 
the same on deck for appreciable minutes be- 
fore any one ventured to refer to our adventure, 
even Lessaution’s fund of conversation being 
dried up by his sense of defeat. 

It was Garlicke who opened the conversation, 
and from a sporting point of view. He is a 
sort of sans appel on the subject of weapons of 
the chase, being a noted man at the running 
deer and such-Hke competitions, as well as a 
keen game shot. He demonstrated that the 
sporting Mannlicher rifle was the instrument 
marked out for the destruction of the Monster, 
giving his reasons for supposing that its bullet 
would penetrate any hide, provided that the 
missile had a hollow point. He regretted in- 
tensely that he had not had one of these use- 
ful implements at hand during the late ren- 
contre. 

Then the babble joined upon this issue and 
others flowing from it, and we felt our nerves 
grow back to us with our words, each of us 
expressing the opinion that to the determined 
man, armed with modern weapons. Dinosaurs 
were not necessarily invulnerable, and each ask- 


THE TEMPLE AND THE LAIR OF CAY 265 

ing, on reflection, no better than to beard 
the Beast again in his lair with suitable 
arms. 

In which wordy tournament Lessaution, as 
was to be expected, rode triumphant down the 
lists, being willing, so he assured us, to com- 
pete with the Great Atrocity, equipped with 
no more than his native intelligence and a 
squirt. 

This latter he proposed to fill with diluted 
prussic acid — of the commodity in question we 
possessed not a molecule, which he regarded as 
beside the question — and therewith advance 
down the passage up which two hours before 
he had so ingloriously fled. Arriving within 
range of the gaping mouth, he would fill it 
with the fatal fluid. But one frightful writhe 
and M. le Dinosaure would lie dead at his feet. 
F7a tout. 

This versatile proposal was met with abound- 
ing laughter, the which daunted him in no 
degree, but cheered us all immensely. For with 
laughter returned self-respect, which had 
dropped from us in its entirety during the dis- 
graceful rout of the morning, and we shook 
our fear from us as dogs shake their dripping 
coats. To each came great resolves to per- 
sonally seek out and destroy the Monster, and 
complacent with the future renown thus in- 
wardly promised, each turned patronizing at- 
tention to the talk of his fellows, using their 
banal conversation to cloak the deep and secret 
devices that seethed within his own brain. So 


266 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


content grew beneath the cloud of tobacco 
smoke, and pleasant talk expanded itself, and 
finally the ladies, under the persuasive tinkling 
of Gerry’s banjo, consented to enliven the rocky 
solitudes with a song. 


CHAPTER XVII 
A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 

It was as Gwen began to lift her voice 
sweetly in the opening notes of “Just a little bit 
of string,” that with harassing appropriateness 
the hawser, which had that morning again 
been tightened between the anchor and the 
ship, snapped with a ringing crack. The deck 
quivered villainously, and I, who had just risen 
to reach for more tobacco, fell upon my chair 
and smashed it to matchwood. The doors of 
the companion flapped to and fro, and the rig- 
ging quivered and thrummed. We could hear 
the jar of the rattled machinery in the engine- 
room. 

At the same moment we were aware that the 
rocks were grinding upon the ship with a scis- 
sor-like movement, though happily they did not 
close. Had they done so we should have been 
nipped in their jaws with a very remote chance 
of escape. We also realized that the smoke, 
cloud, which had risen and grown thinner dur- 
ing the day, was expanding and thickening, 
making the twilight of the short Antarctic 
night a very business-like gloom. 

We slipped across the gangways huniedly, 
and grouped ourselves upon the rocks. A low 


208 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

rumble came creeping across the empty silences 
of the glacier. It rolled up to us like the muffled 
groaning of a buried army. We could fancy 
that the tombed city of long ago was sending 
out its desperate call for succor. The rocks 
shook beneath us. The gravel danced and pat- 
tered about our feet. We staggered, catching at 
one another aimlessly. Gwen, who was next 
me, tripped comfortably into my arms, where I 
held her with much content, both of us swaying 
absurdly. 

The dull roar became abruptly a sharp crash. 
The ground rippled and worked horribly, and 
we were flung to earth, grasping at the rolling 
boulders. The cleft beneath the ship yawned 
like some Titanic mouth. As the remaining 
hawser parted, the keel sank further into the 
opening with a thud, and the stones we had 
built up beneath it went clattering down into 
the abyss. Not ten yards from where Gwen 
and I fell abroad, and not two feet from where 
Lessaution grovelled, a fissure opened and shut 
with a snap as of teeth. The Professor in 
fact declared that for one hair-raising moment 
he looked into the very deepest fastnesses of 
death. 

As the gap closed, a puff of sulphurous steam 
was shot into the air. It clouded over us, 
making us cough. A clatter of ice and falling 
water came from the glacier ; a splinter or two 
fell from the peak. Then, suddenly as came the 
upheaval, quiet returned and fell upon the 
scene. 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 


269 


From that moment, though, the darkness was 
riven. The mushroom-like pall of smoke now 
hung over us rosy-red from fires that burnt 
beneath it in the lap of the hill. The crimson 
light flared down into the empty lake-basin, re- 
flected back luridly from the rocks. A small, 
fine rain of soot, gray and woolly, began to 
fall; it got into our eyes and nostrils, and set 
us sneezing and winking prodigiously. Then 
in trembling and with hopelessness in our 
hearts we climbed the slopes to the cliff-tops, 
filled with desolation in that the earth having 
turned traitor, we had but the sea to look to. 
How vainly we might look and how long we 
knew but too well. 

The red glow wavered upon crestless surges 
that moved slowly upon the crags. Far out 
to sea the islands of the first eruption showed 
black and shattered, dim outlines in the cinder 
rain. This fell mercilessly on floe and berg, 
blackening them to filthy patches upon the rosy 
sea. Far away we could still see the gleam 
of moonlight upon the outer ocean, peaceful 
and silvered against the blood-like hue of the 
landward waters. From above us came the 
boom of irregular explosions, and gray tufts 
of smoke shot up into the darkness. Here and 
there crimson splashes of flame cut the smoke 
tower. They were spouts of molten stone, the 
slag of that mighty furnace. The snap and hiss 
as these fell upon the glacier was like the over- 
boiling of some stupendous kettle. 

My eyes were seared with unrest in this hope- 


270 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


lessness of sea and land. I turned them upon 
Gwen, who stood beside me, to give them com- 
fort. She had a lace shawl about her head and 
arched over her face, shading it from the steady 
drizzle of cinders. These lay upon the few un- 
protected curls that flecked her forehead, giving 
her a poudre effect that in that deep twilight 
radiance was simply ravishing. The same scar- 
let duskiness beat upon her complexion, giving 
it the tint of a moss-rose. Her eyes shone anx- 
iously, but like stars. 

I gnawed restlessly at my mustache. I was 
but human and desperately in love. The desire 
to take her in my arms and swear that nothing 
on earth should hurt her was just on the bor- 
ders of being irresistible. 

“Magnificent sight, isn’t it?” I questioned, 
looking down at her pleasantly. 

“Gorgeous,” she answered briefly, coming a 
step nearer. It was with a curious catch in 
her voice she added: “But what if it over- 
flows?” 

“Oh, it won’t,” I answered confidently. “Be- 
sides, the glacier’s between us and it.” 

“Another earthquake might split the glacier.” 

“We’ll wait till it does,” said I cheerfully. 
“We shall be well away before an3rthing of that 
kind happens.” 

She stood silent for a minute or two, tap- 
ping her fingers idly on the boulder beside her. 
Then she looked up at me with a quick smile. 

“After all, it would be very soon over, 
wouldn’t it?” 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 271 

“Quite soon,” said I, with assurance. “And— 
and we should be all together.” 

She glanced up at me again with a queer little 
smile that tried to cover the catch of her voice* 

“I don’t know that I was thinking of— all,” 
she said, and turned away to join the others 
as they began to wander back towards the 
ship, and I strode beside her, fighting my pas- 
sionate impulses in silence. For no doubt she 
had meant it for a reminder. Denvarre was 
the thought of her heart now that possible 
disaster hung over us, and I, in my blundering 
way, wanted to shove myself into an equahty 
with him. I chewed the cud of this reflection 
as we all strolled down the slope, and the bit- 
ter hope that the end might come as she had 
pictured it almost crept into my heart, so far 
outside the bounds of common sense does the 
fever of jealousy carry one. But I’m thankful 
to say that my English birthright of self-pos- 
session came back to me within a score of 
strides, leaving me rational again. 

I explained — and the others found it remark- 
ably easy to understand — that it would be folly 
to think of sleeping aboard again that night. 
We must take up our residence on the cliflT where 
we had prepared our shelter. So up the ledges 
of the rock pyramid we scrambled, and lodged 
ourselves in the tarpaulined crevices at the top. 
We mostly slept, I believe, but I was restless. 
For I had realized only too well that the great 
smoke pall that overhung us and made long 
the night was Death’s Shadow indeed. 


272 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

As the dawn began to filter in under the fog 
of dust, I woke and strode out to see how fared 
the world of fire and ice. A great hush had 
fallen with the livid morning light. The thun- 
derous boom of the crater had ceased, and 
from above came only the distant purr and 
simmer of undying fires. The boil and roar of 
active eruption had died down. The great 
smoke curtain stretched away in a long wreath 
inland, carried before the cool sea breeze. The 
heavy sulphur mist had lightened with the 
same fresh draught, and the gulls had returned 
and were clamoring overhead in their hun- 
dreds. The sea lay in purple splendor, save 
where it was broken by the soot-begrimed floe. 
The swish of ripples on the cliff-foot was peace- 
ful as the drip of a well-bucket. 

I glanced down to where our ship lay. She 
seemed to have slipped over yet further in the 
night. A soft mist clung about her, and I 
puzzled myself to think how vapor could rise 
from barren and solid stone. It was dissolving 
upward as I watched, but ever forming anew. 
Then I understood that it was coming out of 
the fissure — the steam, no doubt, of some un- 
derground geyser. The carcass of the great 
whale that had been stranded by the volcanic 
wave had slidden down the incline of smooth 
rock almost into the centre of the basin. I re- 
flected with dissatisfaction that the stench of 
this offal so close to our headquarters would be 
by no means pleasant. 

My eyes wandered to the cliff-top where we 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 273 

had stood the night before, dwelling upon it 
with half-painful, half-pleasurable reminiscence. 
How sweet Gwen had looked, and how unat- 
tainable. I began the everlasting fight with 
my inner self that was new and old every morn- 
ing, thrusting forward to my soul’s attention 
every possible argument why I should think 
of her no more, and doing so naturally with 
the same pain and the same enjoyment as much 
as ever. 

Into the midst of my musings came a sud- 
den jar of unfamiliarity as I stared at the edge 
of the crags. I blinked unbelievingly. A black 
breadth of shadow intersected the rocks as if a 
knife had carved them rigidly to the line. I 
rubbed my eyes. There was no doubt about 
it. A clean-cut cleft was in the rocks, some 
twenty feet broad. How deep I could not tell. 

I clambered down the ledges softly from hold 
to hold, avoiding noise that the others might 
have their fill of healthful sleep. I crossed the 
bare flat between me and the new-made fissure, 
and stood upon the edge. I peered in. 

The gash was driven deep into the bosom of 
the cliff, reaching to within twenty feet of the 
tide-line. A lump or two of granite had fallen 
from the parting edges and lay in the nip of 
the angle below. As I looked, one of them 
slipped in the vice-like hold, and settled nearer 
the bottom. A few seconds later another did 
the same. Then I understood that the gap 
was widening before me as clay cracks in the 
June sunshine. 

18 


274 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


I hung over the pit, gazing into it with hope- 
ful eyes. Would the cliff be riven to its base, 
and the sea be let in upon us? Then, by Jove, 
we’d have the old Racoon afloat again. We 
should escape from this land of desolation like 
rats from an opened trap. Into a slow open- 
ing like this the sea would pour gently. It 
would not overwhelm the ship with a sudden 
cascade. Such luck would be too stupendous — 
I assured myself of it most determinedly. Yet 
— ^yet — what a joyous awakening it would be 
for my companions if so outrageous a thing 
could come about. How melodramatically we 
should sweep out into the free spread of waters 
beyond ! 

My chain of cheerful prophecy here got a 
sudden set back. As I looked at the largest 
stone in the crack, it split across. In spider- 
like ramifications cracks multiplied upon it. It 
fell apart into rubble. Finally only dust filled 
the crevice. The rocks were closing even as 
they had opened. A stratum cleavage was 
here. It worked uneasily in the travail of the 
mountain behind — yawning in weariness of the 
constant convulsions. Now in the rest follow- 
ing the upheaval it was settling together again. 

As I stood and pondered these things an- 
other eruption roared in the crater mouth. The 
ground rocked uneasily beneath my feet ; I stum- 
bled to my knees. With a snap the jaws of the 
cliff closed, nothing remaining but the ragged 
dent where the edges had been riven. As I 
scrambled to my feet a shrill yell re-echoed 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 


275 


above the closing roar of the earthquake. I 
turned hastily to see a funny sight. 

Down the lower slopes of the crag we had 
camped upon rolled a round object ; it emitted 
screams of the most piercing description, and 
advanced with gathering speed. I recognized 
the gorgeous sleeping-suit affected by Lessau- 
tion, and the eye-searing yellow tassel of his 
nightcap. They made a vivid flash of meteoric 
color down the sombre rocks. 

The little savant was scrabbling at the stone 
stairway as he fled along, tearing unavailingly 
at clumps of lichen, and snatching at the loose 
boulders. These last he had managed to set mov- 
ing in some quantity, and they enveloped him in 
a clattering halo of pebbles that grew in velocity 
and in volume. The clamor of his onset was 
prodigious. He revolved like a Catherine- wheel. 
His expressive countenance glared witheringly 
out into space during the curt moments it was 
uppermost, returning with a baffled air to face 
the earth as he flew swiftly round. His little 
legs threshed desperately into emptinesis. Fi- 
nally with a preposterous bounce he dropped 
over a ledge some four feet high, and swept out 
from the crag foot amid his escort of boulders, 
squirming fearfully. 

Choking back my laughter I ran to him with 
an expression of deepest solicitude. Before I 
reached him he had risen, and groaning pathet- 
ically, began to slap himself about the more 
outlying portions of his person, slipping his 
hand from limb to limb delicately, and cursing 


276 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


with fluency as bruise after bruise became mani- 
fest. Fortunately his injured shoulder had been 
well swathed in lint, and showed no signs of 
having broken out again. 

He explained that he was murdered in effect — 
yes, he had no whole bone in his body. The 
horrible boulders had mangled him into a 
fricassee. He would be tender eating for M. le 
Dinosaure, to whom his remains would be wel- 
come. He, Emil Saiger Lessaution, had for 
them no further use — no, in their present unbe- 
lievable state they would be of no slightest 
good. He was one large weal. I might figure 
to myself that, seeing me below, he had started 
down to join me. After the disgusting sulphur- 
ous stenches of the night before, he had had the 
intention to smell the freshness of the sea. 
Thus, when he was half-way down, behold the 
earthquake had swept him from his feet. En- 
gulfed in tumultuous rubble he had been borne 
down the cliff as in a torrent. His skin was 
obtused to the baring of the flesh, and his 
joints— yes, his joints, let it be observed — 
strained as by a rack. A thousand thunders! 
These tremblings of the earth were affrighting. 
For him — he did not care when he left so un- 
safe a region. 

I armed him gently up the ascent to where 
the rest of our party— also aroused by the 
eruption — were watching us. I surrendered 
him into the hands of Rafferty, who, on the 
strength of the possession of a case of sticking- 
plaster, had constituted himself surgeon to the 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 


277 


ship’s company. From his hands the Professor 
emerged a few minutes later, with an intricate 
pattern decking his features, to receive the full 
sympathy of us all. 

After this we proceeded to breakfast, with 
certain apprehensions of what might happen in 
the way of further earthquakes, but still with 
moderate appetite. There was one slight roek- 
ing of the ground, but it did not so mueh as 
upset a tumbler, and we coneluded that the 
worst was, for the present, over. 

As the morning drew on we descended to the 
ship to examine her plight. She was leaning 
over at an angle of forty-five degrees, propped 
by the edge of the crevasse. Her keel was 
straining at the splinters jammed in the nar- 
rows of the opening. She lay so that her bulge 
almost covered the ehamber in the rock. The 
hot fumes were still rising from below, smelling, 
for all the world, like the baths at Aix. 

We got aboard and went down into the 
saloon. Everything was in the wildest dis- 
order. The table, being screwed to the floor, 
was still unmoved, but everything else was 
piled in heaps between the floor and the loekers. 
Hardly a bit of crockery but had its crack or 
two, and many of the plates and glasses were 
broken outright. In the hold the bilge was 
leaking through her strained sides, dripping 
down the rocks against which she leaned. 
Not a rat squeaked or scampered in this — their 
usual stronghold — and their damp footprints 
were visible leading away from the ship. 


BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


Evidently this dry dock was not to their 
liking. 

We set to work to get up some coal from the 
bunkers and some provisions from the store- 
room. All of us — even the ladies — carried a 
larger or a smaller package, and in about an 
hour the proeession set back to the cliff abode. 

Gerry and Vi were alone on deek as I emerged 
last from the companion. Gerry’s face was a 
study in searlet and surprise. Something had 
most certainly occurred within the last few 
minutes to move him greatly, and as I ap- 
peared he strode toward me with an air of joy- 
ful importanee. At the same moment, Vi, who 
had turned away as I stepped out of the door- 
way, swung quickly round again toward him. 

“Hush!” she ejaeulated, frowning with a 
meaning look toward the aceommodation lad- 
der, and Denvarre’s head rose into view as he 
ascended. 

Gerry stopped with a look of indecision. Then 
with a beneficent grin he wheeled round and 
offered her his hand to step down off the deck. 
I saw that below, the others were grouped 
upon the rocks, waiting for us to begin the 
ascent again. I was at a loss to aeeount for 
Gerry’s extraordinary behavior, espeeially the 
faet that he was walking happily enough with 
Vi, after avoiding her like the plague ever since 
he’d learned of her engagement. 

I stepped down to join the party as Den- 
varre plunged hastily down the companion to 
fetch, as he explained, another pipe. I began 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 


279 


to saunter along with Gwen and Lessaution, 
still watching with amazement Gerry’s enthu- 
siastic escort of Yi. In two or three minutes 
Denvarre overtook us. I noticed that Gwen 
shot a look at him as he reached us, which I 
found difficult to explain. He was wearing a 
stony expression, and avoided meeting her gaze. 
He began to talk to Lessaution with great vi- 
vacity, and the two gradually drew ahead of 
us, swinging between them the sack of coal 
that the little Frenchman had been staggering 
under alone. We were all more or less weighed 
down with stores, even the girls carrying their 
share. Gwen bore in one hand a pound of can- 
dles, and in the other a tin of mustard. 

As the other two drew out of earshot, the 
silence deepened uncomfortably between Gwen 
and myself. I cannot explain it, but there 
seemed to be a sense of strain between us. I 
looked up once to find her regarding me with 
a fixed expression, and she reddened deeply 
as I caught the glance. She turned her head 
away hurriedly. Then as if by an effort she 
faced me again. I could see by the catch in 
her pretty throat that she was gathering her- 
self together to say something— something that 
she found it difficult to express. There came a 
sudden interruption. 

Fidget, the fox-terrier, had been gambolling 
and ambling aimlessly about. Suddenly, rais- 
ing her nose, she sniffed the air curiously. She 
barked sharply, pattering back toward the 
ship. She leaped the narrowest end of the fis- 


280 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

sure, and trotted up the further slopes of the 
basin still yapping angrily. Her nose was in 
the air defiantly; the bristles of her withers 
stood up. 

She stopped with a quick jerk as she neared 
the top. Planting her fore-legs stiffly before 
her, she began a series of shrill yelpings, danc- 
ing in her excitement. 

Her bark leaped a couple of octaves into a 
shriek of fear, and out from behind a boulder 
loomed the hideous triangular head we knew 
too well. The Monster of the canon lumbered 
into view, and the Httle dog turned and flew 
for us frantically, not the merest indication of 
her tail in evidence, so tightly was it tucked 
between her legs. 

In her unseeing terror she fled straight to- 
ward us, not avoiding the cleft. Consequently 
she came slap upon it, and unable to stop, 
charged straight into it. With a thump and a 
squeak she fell into the angle of the bottom. 
Being so far above her, we could plainly see 
how she was caught in the nip of the crevice, 
where she remained struggling desperately upon 
her back, howling piercingly as she twisted and 
wriggled between the cruel stones. 

We had commenced to run for our rock, which 
was fortunately only about two hundred yards 
distant. The Beast was still about a quarter 
of a mile from the ship and the fissure, out of 
which still came poor Fidget’s heart-rending 
yells. 

“Poor little wretch,” I remarked to Gwen, 


A LITTLE DOG’S STUMBLE 281 

as I turned back to face the ascent. “But I 
expect it’ll be mercifully quick and soon over.” 

Ho answer came, and I was aware — and the 
blood within me seemed to freeze with the 
knowledge — that Gwen was flying down 
the slope to where the little dog lay howling, 
her eyes ablaze, her curls streaming in the wind. 
She was calling Fidget desperately by name, 
while toward her with steadfast, leisured tread 
rolled that great Horror, as three centuries be- 
fore he had swung down upon the hapless 
Mayan maiden. 

“Stop,” I screamed, “for God’s sake stop,” 
and I flung away my burden and raced madly 
down the slope. She gave no heed, still calling 
loudly to Fidget, whose winnings increased as 
we drew nearer. I ran as I have never run be- 
fore or since ; I saw the eyes of the Beast glint 
emerald-sheened in the sun ; I saw his ungainly 
waddle break into a cumbersome trot, and the 
desperation of my speed brought me to Gwen’s 
side in a couple of seconds. 

“Stop! Are you mad?” I yelled. “What’s a 
dog’s life to yours?” and I snatched at her 
shoulder to drag her back. 

A pebble shot from under my feet, glancing 
upon the water-smooth granite ; I feel heavily, 
while a thousand stars danced before my eyes. 
As I scrambled dazedly to my feet, I saw Gwen 
thirty yards away lifting Fidget from the cleft, 
and rushed to meet her as she turned to run 
toward me. The Beast was a short furlong 
distant. 


^82 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

I looked up the quarter-of-mile of steep rock 
escarpment that lay between us and safety, 
and knew that I, at least, dizzy as I was, 
could never mount it before he would be upon 
us. And Gwen might fall. Anything might 
happen. No, the cavern beneath the ship was 
the only chance. I staggered forward and 
caught her elbow as she ran. 

“It’s no good,” I said. “We’re done. The 
cave beneath the ship’s the only possible place.” 

“Can’t we run for it?” she gasped. 

“I can’t, at any rate,” I answered sadly, 
“and I don’t think you’d better try.” 

“Oh, you’re hurt — you’re hurt,” she whis- 
pered pantingly as we raced toward the ship. 
“And it’s my fault. But I couldn’t stand the 
screams of the poor little wretch — I couldn’t 
have seen her torn and mangled. Hadn’t we 
better get into it?” and she pointed up the 
ship’s side above us. 

“No,” I answered, as I handed her swiftly on 
to the ledge, and helped her down into the 
cave beyond, “he might manage to break in 
upon us. Here we’re safe for the present, at 
any rate. He may try to starve us out, but 
it isn’t likely. After a bit, when he finds he 
can’t get at us, he’ll shuffle away as he came.” 

Fidget was barking furiously, and bristling 
up her hair, but at the farthest end of the cav- 
ern. A sludgy, dragging • movement became 
audible, and the murky odor of the Horror 
clouded down to us. Looking out from under the 
overhanging roof I saw a single shining claw 


A Little dog^s stumble 


28^ 


project over the edge of the cleft. Then the 
half of the pad came into view, the rock dint- 
ing its podginess. 

The brute swung his head over me, and 
parted his thin, inquisitive lips almost to a 
sneer. For one halting second the head was 
poised motionless. Then, swift as a dropping 
stone, it smote down at me, and I flung myself 
back, the evil eyes flashing past not five yards 
away. There they hung and balanced, glint- 
ing evilly at us, while the long pendant neck 
strained into the cleft from above. The huge 
body made twilight in the cavern, swelling 
eagerly into the space between the rock and the 
ship. The muscular fore-arms kneaded and 
crumbled the edges of the fissure. So were we 
desperately prisoned, and such was our jailer. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 

At the farthest limit of the cave we leaned 
upon the rock, and looked at that wicked, 
weaving head. Twice before had I seen it, 
but never in such circumstances as this. On 
both occasions we had been men alone. The 
peril had been distributed, so to speak, amongst 
us all. But with a girl, and a beautiful girl 
moreover, with whom I happened to be des- 
perately in love — to have that outrageous atroc- 
ity mouthing upon her and me alone, and to 
feel that any accident might send her into its 
bestial maw — Good God! it might turn any 
brain. I stood between Gwen and the entrance 
and tried to smile into her face. 

‘T wouldn’t look that way, if I were you,” 
said I persuasively. “He’ll take himself off di- 
rectly, I hope.” 

Her lips were very white and they trembled 
unrestrainedly, but she smiled back into my 
eyes — a ghostly, uncertain sort of smile, though, 
I must confess. 

“I don’t mind. Not much at least.” Then 
with a strained attempt to look at the humor- 
ous side of it she added, “What an opportunity 
for M. Lessaution and his squirt.” 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 


285 


I loved to see the pluck of her, and answered 
cheerfully. 

“Garlicke will be distracting the brute’s at- 
tention directly with that Mannlicher rifle,” 
said I. “I happen to know he took it up with 
him when we moved camp, for use in just such 
a possibility as this. He’ll be trying the eflect 
of the bullet with the top bitten off,” I added 
to keep the light side of the question upper- 
most, though it was a watery sort of spright- 
liness at the best. 

From the edge above, where the weight of 
the great body was pressing, a lump of gran- 
ite fell, and splashed into splinters in the nar- 
rows of the gulf. It widened the mouth of the 
fissure by a foot or more. The horrible trunk 
surged forward a yard or two, and one of the 
huge legs, dropping from between the belly and 
the rock, slid into the, opening. The five white 
claws waggled and gripped at empty space, 
and the gloom in the cave increased. Fidget 
was beyond barking now, and backed against 
the uttermost crevices with a sort of bleating 
gasp. I think that never have I seen unadul- 
terated terror more plainly expressed on an 
animal’s features. 

With the increased room for the body, the 
long sinuous neck came forward a like space. 
The thin snout was now fairly in the cavern. 
The nauseous breath hissed at us in gusts — 
sickening as a plague wind. 

Suddenly the lithe neck stifiened. The evil 
eyes concentrated their gaze upon Gwen. Their 


286 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


stare seemed to go past my cheek with the 
searing directness of a flash-light. In an in- 
stant the memory of the power that lay in 
that wicked glare came back to me. 

I dashed forward and clapped my palms 
upon Gwen’s face, calling to her wildly to close 
her eyes. I gathered her to my bosom — and 
oh, the ecstasy of it, even in that desperate 
stress — and stammered incoherently of the fatal 
trap that lay in that unwinking gaze. She 
was content enough to bury her face in the 
folds of my loose jacket, and thus for a mo- 
ment we stood shuddering. Fidget crept and 
fawned shiveringly about Gwen’s skirts. 

I kicked my foot against an object on the 
floor. It was the tin of mustard Gwen had 
been carrying when she started on that mad 
race down the boulders. It was new and shin- 
ing, just out of store. I held it before my face 
to look at the reflection therein. 

Finding his efforts unavailing, the Monster 
was drawing his head back into the outer part 
of the cave, relaxing his tense glare. We turned 
to face him. He curved his neck into a half- 
circle, his great throat muscles working with 
swallowings. Then with a sudden dart he flung 
it out upon us, gaping wide his mouth. 

With a rasp and a roar his breath burst upon 
us, and upon the wall of rock at our back, 
hissing stridently like a gale through taut rig- 
ging. It beat us back almost irresistibly in 
the return draught, thrusting us out from the 
back of the cave toward his waiting lips. For 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 287 

one desperate moment we swayed in that noi- 
some gust, and my free arm— for one still en- 
circled Gwen’s waist — whirled in the air fran- 
tically as I braced myself to meet it. But as 
its first strength died down I flung myself with 
Gwen upon the ground, and grasping at a ledge 
hung on with despair’s own grip. 

In the case of Fidget the Monster’s wile de- 
feated his object. The back-swirl of his breath 
whisked the little dog like a leaf past the low- 
ering head and on into the outer cleft. With 
a sound half bark, half squeal, she leaped upon 
the unwieldy body before the neck could coil 
itself out of the inner cave. We heard her yap- 
ping pass swiftly out among the boulders, and 
die away up the empty lake-side. 

There was the thud of a bullet on the thick 
hide, and the crack of a rifle followed smartly 
on the shot. A flake pr scale of parchmenty 
skin floated past the cave mouth, and rustled 
slowly into the depths below ; not by so much 
as the flicker of an eyelid did the brute show 
that he had felt anything. Another shot fol- 
lowed, with the same result. They clattered 
on — above a score of them — but they worried 
him no more than the buzzings of mosquitoes. 
Finally one must have hit a wart-like excres- 
cence on his shoulder. A lump about the size 
of my fist fell with a flop upon the stones, 
glanced ruddily for a second, and bounced on 
into the depths below. But it left a tell-tale 
smear upon the granite, and scarlet drops 
trickled down the hanging neck, dripping in a 


288 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


small pool at the threshold of the cave. Yet 
the Monster lay unheeding, and we began to 
gasp with the unutterable murkiness of his 
breathing, which filled the air. 

At Gwen’s request I passed her the tin of 
mustard, and she held it like a smelling-bottle 
to her nostrils, to get relief from the disgusting 
fog. We began to pass it backward and for- 
ward to one another, and it was then that 
an inspiration — I think I may justly call it 
that — flashed into my brain. 

With the tin in my hand I turned to face the 
great head again, waiting till the thin lips 
parted in one of their deep-drawn breaths. 
Then I tossed my missile accurately toward 
the open jaws, and like a flash of crimson the 
gums gaped wide and the yellow teeth closed 
upon it. For a single instant we saw it gleam 
brightly between them. 

There was a scrunch and a grinding sound 
among the great fangs, and then the yellow 
powder sank bitingly into the saliva. The 
brute opened his mouth, and a bellow pealed 
out of the strained throat, enveloping us in a 
volume of merciless sound and hot, putrid air. 
The long pink tongue slavered and twisted be- 
tween the burning gums, showing ruddy streaks 
where the metal had gashed it. In one such 
ragged wound a remnant of the bright tin was 
still sticking ; the flaming paste of powder and 
saliva was filling the torn veins with agony. 

He dashed his head desperately ftom side to 
side, slamming it on the hard rock sides of the 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 


289 


cavern. His unearthly sereams threatened to 
burst our ear-drums. He beat the^ air with 
his great clumsy foot, and we could hear the 
thunderous boom of his great tail against the 
timbers of the ship. 

Finally with the swiftness of an escaping bird 
the tortured head fled out of the cave mouth, 
and we heard his great carcass drag and rustle 
from the cleft. The blessed sunlight began to 
flow down to us again, and the filthy stench 
began to fade. 

I let go my grip upon the rock, and, more 
unwillingly, my encirclement of Gwen’s waist. 
I looked inquiringly into her eyes as I helped 
her up. She staggered as she rose, and for one 
delightful moment clung to me. I felt that 
mere courtesy bade me tender again my sup- 
port, and so for two or three delicious sec- 
onds we stood. Then .she found her voice and 
the ghost of a smile. 

“I think you’re quite the cleverest person I 
ever met,” she said gratefully. “How on earth 
did you come to think of the mustard?” 

‘T really haven’t the least idea,” said I hon- 
estly. “His mouth was there and I had the tin 
in my hand. It seemed the most natural thing 
in the world to throw it in. The effect was 
more than I dared to hope for.” 

She drew herself unostentatiously away from 
my arm as she spoke, and leaned against the 
rocks behind her. 

“Well,” she remarked, “we’ve saved poor lit- 
tle Fidget, at any rate. Even if we’re doomed 
19 


290 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

to be devoured we shall have the satisfaction 
of knowii^ that.” 

“We !” said I rebukingly. “Should I ever have 
been such a sentimentalist as to risk a horrible 
death for a dog?” 

“I rank above Fidget in your opinion then, 
as you have chosen to accompany me into 
this trap. You do me too much honor,” and 
she bowed to me charmingly. 

I couldn’t quite command myself to answer 
this in any ordered phrase, but I suppose the 
expression on my face must have spoken. At 
any rate Gwen blushed delightfully, and con- 
tinued rather hurriedly, “Don’t you think we 
might make a run for it now?” 

“I’ll reconnoitre,” said I, “and see if he’s 
really taken himself off or not.” 

I climbed gingerly out of the cleft, and very 
cautiously raised my head above the edge. No, 
by no manner of means was he gone. He was 
lying about fifty yards away, banging his head 
upon the ground and lashing the boulders with 
his tail ; some of them were smitten to splinters 
as I watched. His mouth still dripped yellow 
saliva, and his teeth were meeting with re- 
sounding cracks. His tongue still lapped itself 
about his tortured lips, and in his agony he 
rolled over, writhing upon his back and beat- 
ing his four great limbs convulsively toward 
the sky. Lumps of his scaly skin were scattered 
about on the granite as feathers scatter from 
a shot bird. His nails clattered as they swept 
an overhanging mass of granite in one of their 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 291 

aimless gyrations. Finally there was one last 
angry flurry of legs and tail, and he rolled back 
upon his belly; his horny eyelids closed; his 
head sank , wearily upon his fore-arms. 

As I turned to tell Gwen I kicked a stone 
beside me. It fell with a metallic clang, and 
in a moment the green eyes were open and star- 
ing at me. He lifted his head, and his huge 
limbs began to shove his carcass back toward 
me. There was a revengeful glare in those bale- 
ful eyes, and I popped back into the cleft like 
a rabbit into his burrow. 

I heard him come dragging along above. 
Then, looking up, I saw the thin snout just 
overlap the edge and lie still. Evidently he 
was settling down to his sentinelship. Afraid 
of another dose of the biting pain we had in- 
flicted, he did not dare to venture his head 
again into our cave. He meant to starve us 
out. 

Gwen looked up hopefully as I returned, but 
I had to shake my head at her glance of in- 
quiry. 

“No good just at present, I^m afraid. He’s 
like the hosts of Midian, prowling and prowling 
around.” 

“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. But I 
do wish we’d had something a little more nu- 
tritious than mustard, useful as it’s been. I’m 
simply starving. It’s more than lunch- time by 
half an hour.” 

“That can be arranged,” said I airily. “I’ll 
nip up the other side of the ship and get 


292 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


aboard. I can get hold of plenty of stuff in the 
pantry.” 

*‘As if I should allow it for a moment. I for- 
bid it absolutely,” and she brought her little 
foot with a stamp upon the rock floor. 

I still edged toward the cave mouth, explain- 
ing that the danger was practically nil, though 
well did I know the contrary. Still a man can’t 
sit still to watch a particularly sweet woman 
starve, even if he has to risk a bit to bring her 
vietual. 

“I cannot stand the ignominy of starvation,” 
I assured her, “not to mention the discom- 
fort.” 

She came toward me with her eyes so sweetly 
appealing that I felt sick with temptation. “If 
you go,” she said almost tearfully — there really 
was a humid look in her blue eyes — “I shall 
simply die of fright. I won’t be left alone.” 

I hesitated and was lost. She put her hand 
upon my sleeve, and looked up searchingly into 
my face. “Please, please, please, don’t go. I 
really am very frightened.” 

Goodness knows what I should have done 
next. Probably taken her in my arms and 
sworn neither to leave her then nor ever again, 
regardless of Denvarre or any question of mere 
honor. But fate took matters out of my hand. 

The brute above us gave a hiccough; I be- 
lieve he meant it for a sneeze, but as a minor 
explosion of sorts it might have held up its 
head with cordite cartridges or an oil motor- 
car. Gwen, whose nerves were, as you may 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 293 

imagine, a trifle beyond control by now, gave 
a cry and fled into my arms, which opened of 
themselves to receive her. And so for a minute 
we stood silent and listening, while my pulses 
rioted within me. 

After a moment or two we were aware that 
the foetid odor of the great Beast was being 
overpowered by a resistless smell of sulphur. 
This was doubtless giving our friend a sore 
throat, and titillating his nostrils. I hoped 
devoutly that the unpleasantness of it would 
be too much for him. He snorted once or twice 
again, and then a faint steam began to rise 
from the depths, as I had seen it do in the 
morning. Far below us I could hear the faint 
lap of water upon the stones. 

Then a horrible fear took possession of me. 
The water was rising, hot from some volcanic 
spring. Shortly it would gurgle out at our 
feet and flood our refuge. Then we should have 
the necessity before us of deciding whether we 
would drown — or perchance be parboiled — or 
step resignedly into the jaws of the Monster 
outside. 

I looked fixedly at Gwen as these terrors 
hunted each other through my brain, and I 
suppose my thoughts shadowed out upon my 
face. 

She turned her eyes to mine as I held her, 
looking questioningly at me, as if she would 
read my very soul. A sob and gurgle from the 
rising water sounded out bell-like and clear, 
moaning distinctly across the silence. I knew 


294 BEYOND THE GRBAT SOUTH WALL 


by the shudder that ran through her that she 
was realizing what must happen when it lapped 
up to us. Her face fell upon my breast ; her 
hands rose tremblingly to my shoulders ; so for 
a few moments we stood, and silence hung be- 
tween us. 

The white clouds of steam began to weave 
and whirl fantastically across the mouth of the 
cave. The warm, damp air played about us. 
The suck and splash of the waters sounded 
ever nearer and clearer from below. Above we 
could hear the wheeze and the occasional gasp 
of the watching Monster, and his feet moved 
restlessly, sending down showers of little stones 
into the abyss, where they no longer clattered 
into emptiness, but fell with splashings into the 
growing flood. Then a thrill pulsed through 
the rocks, and we could feel the sickening heave 
and roll of the earth as a new eruption shook 
the crater. In a second or two the roar of it 
came dully down to us, drowning the sound 
of the rifle shots which still pattered at inter- 
vals on the rocks, or thudded on that sensa- 
tionless hide. 

Finally the water rose to view, creeping with 
slow, silent tide up the rocks, gaining inch by 
inch upon the sides of the cleft. A wreath of 
steam hung mistily upon its surface. I bent 
and touched it with my finger. It was warm 
— about eighty degrees I should imagine — but 
not unbearable. 

I stepped again to the cave mouth and peered 
up. The cruel snout still projected over the 


A t)]^fERAT:e BETROTHAL 


295 


edge above, waiting, waiting remorselessly. 
As I watched the triangular head moved for- 
ward a space, and, turning sideways, looked 
down at me with hot, revengeful eyes. I 
stepped back into the shadow of the cave, and 
down flashed the head, hanging in eager, sway- 
ing motion before us, gloating for the moment 
when we should be thrust cmt to it by the ris- 
ing flood. 

I slushed back to the end of the cave — the 
water was now at our knees — and took Gwen 
in my arms, shielding the gruesome sight from 
her with my breast. She drooped into my em- 
brace again, trembling, but with a little thank- 
ful sigh for companionship in this last despe- 
rate pang. 

“It’ll soon be over,” I said as steadily as I 
could, while my hand brushed her hair smooth- 
ingly. “Just a little struggle, and then a dream 
thal;,, carries you right across the border, and — 
and I shall be there to meet you. Do you see, 
dear?” 

I had no right to call her dear, I know, she 
being Denvarre’s and not mine, but it was the 
last time, and, poor little soul, she wanted com- 
fort for the last wrench. She looked up at me, 
and I could see that her lips were parched and 
dry, though there was a curious light shining 
in her eyes. 

“Is there no chance at all?— are you sure?” 
she whispered, and for all the horror that was 
closing down upon us, a smile shone in her 
eyes. 


296 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


“None, I fear,” said I; “but — but I don’tthink 
it’ll be bad — people who have been nearly 
drowned say that ” 

“Ah, I don’t mean that. Only I wanted to 
tell you before the end — I meant to tell you 
in any case, but it’s easier now. Yi only found 
out this morning that mother had led you to 
think that we had accepted those two — but — 
but it isn’t so. Lord Denvarre asked me, but 
I told him I didn’t think I possibly could — 
only — he wanted me to wait six months and 
see — and then we met again, and — I knew — 

then ” But my lips upon hers stayed her, 

and my arms went fiercely about her again. 

“My darling, my darling,” I cried, “and I 
thought you’d forgotten me utterly, and taken 
Denvarre for all he could bring you. And now, 
sweetheart, now — oh, my God,” I groaned, 
“what can I do, what can I do?” 

Her voice was quite steady, and she leaned 
forward to put her face up to mine. “Then 
you still want me, dear,” she whispered. “Well, 
I’m yours till — till the end,” and a tiny sob 
shook her voice for a moment. “But I want 
a gift from you before we part, my darling,” 
and she touched my cheek with a little soft 
caress. 

“A gift?” I stared back into her eyes, de- 
vouring with hungry gaze the sweet face that 
was mine, only to be lost to me again. 

“Yes, dear. You have your revolver.” 

I thrust her back from me wildly. My God, 
how could she ask it? I, to send the bullet 



“ it’ll soon be over,” I SAID . . . 

Page 2g6. 




i|a- '- ’ * ^ 1 •>- 




-',W»'x 



A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 


297 


into that dear heart that beat for me. I, to 
give her death, who longed with every passion- 
ate impulse of my being to give her life, who 
would have perilled not only my unworthy 
body but my very soul to save her pain. The 
thought of it was more than could be borne ; 
the doing of it — ^Merciful God! it was impos- 
sible. 

“P/ease, my darling. I should only struggle 
when the last moment came, and fight out into 
his jaws.” She pressed back close to me again, 
looking up at me with a pleading that was 
terrible. ‘‘Just one embrace, my own, and 

then ” and her hands rose round my neck, 

and for one delicious instant her dear lips 
pressed passionately against mine. Then, with 
a little triumphant smile she drew back, and 
repeated quietly, “Now, dear.” 

The water was at my shoulders, and it was 
only by holding Gwen tightly to me that I 
kept her face above the surface. There was but 
a bare three inches between my pistol hand 
and the roof. I looked at the cartridges with 
some faint hope that they might be wetted, 
and that this last terrible duty might be yet 
taken from me. But the brass cases had held 
only too well. I raised my revolver, pointing 
it downward, and looked into those dear 
eyes. Her eyelids drooped as the steel barrel 
shone, and I felt her fingers tighten upon my 
arm. The water was at my lips, but with one 
supreme effort I raised her to me. One last 
look into the dearest face in all the world — 


298 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

one last kiss — one touch of that golden hair — 
then 

Crash-crash— crash— outside was a grating 
roar, and caught by the rising tide the ship 
surged forward. The bulge of it swung against 
the cave mouth, and in an instant caught and 
gripped the pendant neck, sawing and grind- 
ing its flesh against the jagged edges. The 
prisoned head in its agony beat frantically 
against the surface, and the water shot right 
and left in angry ripples as the breath of the 
Monster’s scream burst upon it. 

The revolver dropped from my hand. I 
snatched Gwen to me, and dived into the hot, 
turbid flood — down beneath the struggling 
head, down beneath the ship’s keel, out into 
the warm stillness of the cleft beyond. 

Gasping and choking from our sudden immer- 
sion I dragged my darling over the edge, and 
half-led, half-carried her up the rocky slope, 
leaving a long wet drip upon the granite. The 
enraged and baffled ^^elling of the captured 
Beast rang out piercingly among the clifl' 
echoes; the lashings of his great tail smote 
upon the empty hold of the ship as upon a 
drum. In his vain attempts to draw his neck 
from the trap he drove and spurred at the 
boulders frantically, and the clatter of his long 
nails upon the pebbles sounded like the scratch- 
ings of some monstrous cat. 

Our clothes were sodden and heavy, and our 
nerves unstrung from terror and excitement. 
We were in no condition for a swift escape. 


A D]BSPERATE BETROTHAL 290 

My own state of mind I can in nowise de- 
scribe, such a confusion of fright and ecstasy 
raged therein. Firstly, the horrors of a hideous 
death still hung over us, though for the mo- 
ment passed by. My pulses still tingled with 
the sick despair of that last terrible moment. 
Death had been my betrothal gift to my love 
— death to save her from agony. Another sec- 
ond, and she would have received it at my 
hand. Thank God that there are few who can 
realize the asons of torture that swelled into 
those few instants of good-bye. Death was 
still at our backs, and might follow hard upon 
our footsteps, but I was so uplifted in the 
knowledge of my darling’s love, and in learn- 
ing that no point of honor stood between us, 
that I scarce gave a thought to remembering 
that we might yet stand together in the Val- 
ley of the Shadow. 

Up the slope we toiled, and very like one of 
those terrible hills that we climb in dreams did 
it appear. Gwen clung to me desperately, her 
dear eyes hunted and shining with affidght. 
Her knees trembled — she strove to run, but her 
dripping skirts caught her limbs and made her 
stumble. 

Still up we reeled, the pebbles spinning from 
our unsteady feet, the smooth rock silt churn- 
ing to mud upon our shoes. From above came 
cries of encouragement, and from the heights I 
seemed to see dark forms speed down toward 
us. Another crash echoed from behind. I threw 
a quick glance across my shoulder. The Ra- 


300 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

coon was slanting back from the cave mouth, 
and the Monster was free. I saw him turn 
and crawl slowly from the pool in which the 
ship was beginning to right herself and sit 
swan-like. 

He lifted his head, and I saw the blood flow 
in streams from his gashed throat. It steamed 
as it made puddles upon the cold rocks. He 
sniffed the breeze. Then his evil eyes settled 
their stare in our direction. The huge body 
began to waddle and slide toward us. 

I caught Gwen up in my arms and fled up- 
ward, terror thrusting me on. She gave one 
gasp of protest; then she settled into my em- 
brace with a little sigh of relief as she nestled 
to me. So the race for life began. 

I ran almost unseeingly, the great pulses 
throbbing and thrumming in my bosom. Now 
and again I stumbled; once I nearly fell. Gwen’s 
arm came with a jolt against a boulder top. I 
cursed my awkwardness, hurrying on and try- 
ing to pick my way amongst the great, loose 
lumps more carefully. Some rubble gave be- 
neath my feet. I rolled over sideways; some- 
how — though how I can’t say myself— I man- 
aged to fall upon my elbows and save my 
burden from harm. I rocked up to my feet, 
and saw as in a dream the clifffoot two hun- 
dred yards away, and upon it the forms of 
men who ran toward me. 

I turned my face over my shoulder again. 
The Brute was a short half-furlong away— his 
tongue lolling from his wide expectant jaws. 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 301 

He strained his neck toward us, his eyes aglint ; 
he seemed almost to trot rather than waddle 
in his greedy haste. Determination and despair 
drove me forward as with a goad; I panted 
with the horror of his oncoming. 

Above me sat Garlicke, rifle in hand, break- 
ing the clean outline of the ridge against the 
sky. The rifle was silhouetted thin and deli- 
cate as a needle against the brightness. A 
spurt of blue smoke burst from the muzzle, 
and the crack of it rang across the hollow. I 
heard a thud as the bullet struck the mass of 
hungry desire behind me, and glanced again 
quickly, hoping for effect. A red weal shone 
upon one of the horny eyelids. He stopped, 
blinking stupidly, and half-stunned by the 
shock. But the ball had not penetrated, and 
with a puzzled swinging of the wounded neck 
he resumed his scrambling, ungainly gait. 

Still a hundred yards, and my eyes grew 
dizzy. A red mist seemed to close upon them, 
which, lifting now and again, showed me sur- 
rounding objects defined as on the slides of a 
magic lantern. My breath rasped with such a 
wheezing whistle that I looked wonderingly to 
see whence the sound could come. My arms 
were like wire ropes, strained to the breaking. 
My legs shuffled painfully under me. I felt the 
strength going out from me as water leaks from 
an unbunged cask. The sound of Garlicke’s 
shots struck fainter and fainter upon my ears. 
I stumbled again, and only saved myself from 
plunging forward by an instinctive straighten- 


302 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

ing of my shoulders. The sunlight was shad- 
owing to a night — a black darkness that 
could be felt. 

Then, dimly, a familiar voice broke upon my 
ears; I was conscious of a hand seizing my 
arm ; of some one struggling with me for Gwen. 
Yet, thought I, we will die together. Then the 
friendly hand, leaving this useless striving, 
dragged me forward; behind me some unseen 
power was thrusting me with mad shoves up 
the Titan steps of the cliff face. Suddenly came 
clearness of vision, and I knew Denvarre and 
Gerry, who were hauHng and jerking me up 
the crevices of our rock of defence. Gwen was 
still in my arms, and below, the great mon- 
ster scrabbled at the cliff-foot, reaching up his 
neck in raging, ravenous disappointment. 

So, Denvarre dragging and Gerry butting 
like some benevolent goat, from niche to niche 
I stumbled with my burden, the little stones 
rattling down in their thousands upon the 
Beast below. Upon the top I staggered for- 
ward into the shelter of the tarpaulin, and laid 
Gwen down upon the rocky floor. Then, in 
the sudden impulse of her love, and in her 
revulsion from that great dread, she flung 
her arms about me as I stooped over her, 
and before them all Idssed me on the lips. 
And who was I that I should not kiss back 
once and again? 

So my love and I came to an understanding, 
and sealed our betrothal as the shadow of 
death passed from us — passing as a cloud when 


A DESPERATE BETROTHAL 


303 


the breeze is strong and out leaps the sun; 
while above us the mountain still belched fire 
and molten stone, and below the Beast prowled, 
and sought hungrily for our blood. And I take 
it that never have man and maid plighted troth 
in stranger circumstance. 


CHAPTER XIX 

A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 

A good man all through is Denvarre, as I 
said before, and like a good man he took the 
failure of his hopes. And they had never been 
anything more. For as he explained to me, 
when we had changed our dripping clothes 
and joined the others on the cliff-top, he had 
no knowledge of Lady Delahay’s very distorted 
rendering of the situation. And he shook my 
hand and looked me straight in the eyes, and 
then, like the gentleman he was, went away 
to leave my sweetheart and me to say all we 
had to say to each other behind a ledge of rock 
that screened us from the others. And he took 
with him my unstinted admiration and esteem. 

My future mother-in-law was in no condi- 
tion for the exchanging of ideas or reproaches. 
The horrors of the situation crowded her 
understanding, leaving no room for such trivial- 
ities as the arrangement of her daughter’s wel- 
fare. Apathetically she took the plain state- 
ment I thought it only my duty to render to 
her, making no remark thereon save that 
“Nothing mattered when we should all be dead 
before the day was out.” And to this pessi- 
mistic view of the situation we had perforce 




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A RED STORM OF LAVA DASHED IN A CLOUD OF STEAM TO THE FAR 

END OF THE LAKF. 


Page 30s. 





A WONDROUS BREACHING OP THE WALL 305 

to leave her, while we all waited for what 
should betide us at the hand of fate. 

In the corner apart Gwen and I held each 
the other’s hand, and sought each other’s eyes. 
And in the bliss that was mine I thanked God, 
nearly sparing a blessing for the great Beast 
who still prowled below, for how but for him 
should I have come into my kingdom of de- 
light? So in happiness that even the great 
smoke pall could not overshadow we sat to 
watch the day die, and the blood-red glow of 
the mountain wax scarlet on the dark cloud 
above us, while the pulse of the undying fires 
vibrated across the heavens after each succeed- 
ing roar and shudder of the melting rocks. 

As we watched the travail of the hills, across 
the edge of the crater where it was lowest in 
the lap of the peak, a thin line showed. Faint 
it was at first, then thickening to a broad scar- 
let, where the range of ringing rocks dipped 
lowest. For seconds it hung there, a red bar 
of palpitating, blood-like flame. Then with a 
roar it broke over the barrier and swept on 
headlong down the spur of the hill, engulfing 
the smaller rocks, and laving the bases of the 
larger ones that stemmed its current island-like. 

After the first mad burst the roaring spate 
of fire slowed on a slighter slope ; then rolled 
massively, grimly down upon the glacier head 
through the vale of granite. As the lava 
drained to the bottom level of the rent in the 
crater the flow lessened. Finally it ceased. Ere 
half a mile of the distance between the orifice 
20 


306 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

and the glacier had been covered the crimson 
glow began to fade. The surface of the flood 
dulled to a dark crimson, then to a living 
blackness as of velvet. The crest of the ad- 
vancing flood sank down sluggishly and stayed, 
its bosom curving menacingly, the advance 
guard of an army irresistible. 

A flaring pillar of flame-dyed, guttering stone 
shot skyward again, the splashes of it thud- 
ding about us heavily. One molten lump, stif- 
fening as it fell, smote on our tarpaulin roof, 
slashing through it to the stone floor. A shriek 
went up from Lady Delahay as she shrank 
back from its still living glow, and the tar- 
paulin burst into sudden flame. A dozen willing 
hands tore it down and wrapped it together, 
smothering the fire in the folds. Poor little 
Fidget — utterly cowed by terror fast following 
on terror — came slinking toward me, and nest- 
ling in between Gwen and myself, hid her little 
nose deferentially in my sleeve. My darling 
gave her a little friendly pat, and I cuddled the 
little dog gratefully myself. But a shudder fol- 
lowed fast on the caress as I thought of what 
might have been when she had been kicking 
and screaming in that death-trap in the cleft. 

We peered down at the Beast. He was still 
rambling restlessly about, snuffling now and 
again at the cliff-foot, aimlessly pawing and 
snatching at the boulders that banked the rock 
face. Once just below us, where the sheer crag 
melted into a more slanting angle, he rose clum- 
sily upon his hind limbs, leant forward, and 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 307 

stretched his head toward us, pricking out his 
long tongue. As it licked across his lips the 
jag of broken tin flashed redly in the glow, and 
we could hear it grate as his teeth closed. 

His head reached up to within forty yards 
of us as he swarmed against the cliff, and 
Garlicke aimed carefully for his eye. The bul- 
let only grazed the unscarred eyebrow, giving 
it a curious uniformity with the other one. 
The brute merely blinked impatiently as the 
ball thudded on the shell-like lid, but did not 
twitch a muscle. As it splayed out its feet on 
the bank of loose stones, seeking purchase to 
strain higher, the rubble gave way, and it 
rolled back with a thump upon its side. Its 
green belly shone a loathsome pink in the glare 
from above, and for a moment it lay prone, 
its great legs kicking convulsively. Then with 
an effort it righted itself, and crawled sulkily 
away to resume its sentinelship at the cliff 
foot. It coutinued to ramble to and fro un- 
ceasingly, casting ever greedy eyes at us, the 
hideous snout lifted to the breeze, the long 
tongue lolling from between the yellow teeth. 

Down in the hollow a growing sheet of water 
spread. On it the ship floated lopsided and 
aimlessly. Long widening ripples welled from 
where the cleft was submerged, and a steam 
cloud was hazy upon the surface. The hull was 
all untrue upon its keel with the shifting of the 
ballast, and as the ripples swung her, drifted 
in slow circles. With her lost topmast she 
looked like nothing so much as a wounded 


308 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


wild duck. The fire glow gave the increasing 
water the effect of blood issuing from a wound 
in the bosom of earth. On it were reflected 
crimson throbs from the arch of ruddy fog; 
they were as pulses across an opened vein. 

Another quiver rocked our pyramid of gran- 
ite, and the glacier was riven across. The fol- 
lowing roar gushed down to us deafeningly. 
The lane showed dark and mysterious across 
the ice-field, clean cut as by an axe blow, and 
this new-made canon ran with scarce an ob- 
stacle nearly to the foot of our refuge. We 
seemed to get a vision, swift and fleeting as a 
lightning flash, of the hidden mysteries of the 
ice. I could have declared I saw the yellow 
facade of the buried temple show up against 
a black background of rock. Then as the fly- 
ing lava sank back again into the bath of fire, 
darkness closed over this half-seen apparition. 

Once again the red bar glowed across the 
dip in the crater brim. For one tense moment 
it hovered, and then crashed down upon its 
dying forerunner, covering it anew with living 
fire. Along this smoothed path it rushed head- 
long, leaped down from the lava crest upon 
the stones, and rolled with measured grandeur 
down the groove the earthquake had riven. 
Blocks of ice, fallen from the glacier sides, lay 
in its course and were swallowed in a moment. 
Like the roar of a bursting shell the steam 
bubbles smashed to the surface, and floated up 
in white circling clouds to lose themselves in 
the fog above. Unhalting the torrent ran, en- 


A WONDROUvS BREACHING OP THP WALL 300 

gulfing all before it; stones, ice, and the rock 
itself disappeared. Then in slow-growing black- 
ness it stayed, sank and died, even as its pre- 
decessor. But this time the wave reached to 
the end of the fissure, and the heat of it beat 
up to us, lapping us in a bath of sultry, sti- 
fling air. 

The Beast shifted his sentry walk uneasily, 
stretching out his neck toward the lava wall, 
and snouting at the warm draught suspiciously. 
For a moment he seemed to waver. His nos- 
trils dilated curiously. Then he glanced to- 
ward the rising lake, and we thought he would 
give over his seeking for our lives. As he hes- 
itated, now looking lakeward, now peering up 
to us, another crash resounded from the moun- 
tain. Like the tearing of a sheet of paper the 
glacier canon split further shoreward, and 
opened beneath his very feet. Half his bulk 
rolled into the cleft thus riven ; his tail and one 
hind limb disappeared. Slipping and spurring 
frantically he managed to support himself on 
his huge elbows, but lost ground with every 
rock of the shuddering earth. The cleft yawned, 
then half closed again. Thus as in a vice he 
was held, his leg and tail mangled in the nip 
of the fissure. He looked like some stupendous 
stoat caught in a gigantic gin. 

The bellow of his agony pierced even above 
the thunderous roll of the mountain. The blood 
spurted from his sides, bathing them in a darker 
tinge than the flame glow. His fore-feet beat 
and thudded on the stones, sweeping them into 


310 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ridges with the convulsions of his agony. He 
swung his neck across his shoulders, tearing 
rabidly at his wounds. 

The sight was almost too much for human 
eyes. Gwen had already buried hers against 
my coat. The breathing of the sailors behind 
me grew stertorous, as their chests rose and 
fell in unconscious sympathy. Speech was taken 
from us by a very paralysis of horror. But 
worse was to come. 

The fiery matter that fevered the volcano 
burst forth again. Again the mountain shud- 
dered, belching forth its flames. Down the 
dead waves another living torrent rushed, 
roared in the deep channel through the gla- 
cier, and foamed — ^yes, foamed — into the widen- 
ing split. A scream, anguish-born and like the 
crowded wails of ten thousand souls in tor- 
ment, rose from the prisoned Beast. A pun- 
gent, choking smell of roasting flesh rose up 
to us. Then the red tide flowed on over the 
charred carrion, and burst asunder again; a 
gout of steaming gas shot up, sole remnant of 
the tissues of that enormous carcass. The 
stream touched and laved lightly at our refuge. 
Then slowly it dimmed, and the velvet surface 
grew up on it again. The current halted and 
grew still. Its force was spent. 

The heat beat up to us scorchingly. We felt, 
but saw it not. Our faces were averted, and 
nausea had us by the throat. As the great 
Beast had died, so might we come to die, and 
that right soon. The realization of the matter 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALE 311 

was more than we eould see and not bleneh. 
For some half-minute no one spoke, and dread 
hung over us thiek as the cloud of cinder dust 
that filled the sky. 

As I raised my eyes again to look on the 
things of earth, a broad line showed across the 
seaward cliffs that hedged us in. It increased 
visibly as I stared at it, and I knew that again 
the cliffs were rending between the sea and the 
growing pool. I leaned across and touched 
Janson on the shoulder, pointing silently. As 
he too caught sight of the rift the light of 
hope grew across his haggard face. 

“If it cuts down to the sea ” he muttered, 

glancing to where our ship and the little launch 
wandered masterlessly about among the steam 
wreaths. He turned to me and pointed to 
them. 

“Let^s get aboard, my lord. It’s only a hun- 
dred to one chance, but it might widen and 
give channel. Here’s only quick roasting, at 
any rate.” 

“How about the propeller-shaft?” I queried 
sadly. “We shan’t be able to get steam on 
her.” 

“That’s no matter,” he said, shaking his 
head impatiently. “We can get steam in the 
launch for a tow, or if that takes too long, 
ten oars in one of the boats would shift her, 
lopsided as she is.” 

“Who’s to board her, Mr. Janson? It means 
swimming.” 

“I can if nobody else will, but I’ll give Raf- 


^}l2 BEYOND YHE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ferty the job. He’s a fine swimmer,” and he 
beckoned to the boatswain. 

“Board the launch,” quoth Janson to him 
curtly, “and bring her ashore.” 

Kalferty made no remark on this terse or- 
der, but slipped quickly down the ledges that 
led to the rocks below. He kicked off his boots, 
dropped his jacket upon the stones, and pois- 
ing his hands above his head, sprang like a 
dart into the still pool. There was scarcely 
a splash as he struck the surface, but he rose 
almost instantly in a circle of foam, while a 
shrill yell of agony burst from his lips. He 
threshed desperately back to the shore, still 
screaming horribly. 

Howling and cursing, he flung himself upon 
the stones, and, oblivious of all considerations 
of modesty, tore off his clothes. He apostro- 
phized every saint in the Catholic calendar. 
He squirmed, he bellowed, and believing him 
struck with sudden madness we raced toward 
him, utterly at fault to find explanation of this 
sudden explosion. But as we drew near our 
eyes soon found a cause. 

The unfortunate seaman was red as any lob- 
ster. His skin was blistered and parboiled. It 
hung, as he himself explained in no uncertain 
voice, “in tathers and shtrips.” The waters 
of the rising lake had scalded him horribly. 

We caught the unfortunate seaman as he 
wriggled upon the cool stones, and wrapped 
him in our coats. One of the men ran back 
for our blankets, nothing, as I well knew, be- 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 313 

ing SO dangerous for him as exposure to the 
air. What he needed most was thick cover- 
ings and oil. But, unfortunately, the whole 
stock of the latter was aboard the ship. 

In this extremity the long black bulk of the 
stranded whale beneath the cliff caught my 
eye. It was no time for discussion. Gerry 
and I snatched up the kicking mariner, and 
bore him loudly complaining toward the car- 
cass. We hacked great greasy lumps from its 
reeking sides, and then, as the blankets arrived, 
packed the victim tightly in this carrion, twist- 
ing the folds of blanket round the layers of 
blubber. So, muttering condemnation on all 
and sundry, and sniffing most melancholiously 
as the stench of the putrid wrapping filled his 
nostrils, we set him down, while we devised 
other means of reaching the ship across the 
steaming lake. 

The launch was now only about sixty yards 
away, turning slowly as the ripples rose from 
the centre of the pool. One of the sailors pro- 
duced a ball of string. To one end of this we 
tied a sizable pebble, and Gerry, who is a noted 
man at throwing the cricket ball, managed 
after some half-dozen attempts to land the 
stone in the bottom of the boat. Careful tugs 
brought her ashore, and in less than a minute 
we were aboard the ship. 

I ran forward and knotted a loose rope to 
the foremast. Then, taking the slack, we 
jumped back into the boat, and bent our backs 
to the oars^ Ever so slowly the ship got way 


314 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


and followed us, till the grating of the keel 
against the shallows told us she could come 
no further. VVe looked at the cleavage of the 
rocks. We saw with gladness that it had wid- 
ened yet more, for the blue horizon line of 
ocean shone distinct across it, and the peaks 
of the nearer bergs jutted up into the vista. 
The others who had watched us from the 
heights now began to descend the granite stair- 
way. 

In straggling procession, the sailors weighed 
down with our surplus stores, they joined us 
as we strained upon the rope. The ladies were 
quickly ferried across the few yards between 
the rocks and the ship, and some of us tossed 
the various impedimenta aboard, while half a 
dozen ran back up the rocks to collect all leav- 
ings. Then, dumping everything anyhow upon 
the deck, we got a strong crew of six in one 
of the boats, hoisted the launch aboard, and 
gradually got the bows turned cliffward. 

The waters were still gushing up and widen- 
ing upon the basin, the circling eddies helping 
our towers as they dragged us tediously to- 
ward the cleft. The shocks from the moun- 
tain came with greater frequency, making the 
pool shiver into tiny surges that fled across 
it, to break in ripples on the further shore. 
Another of the peaks toppled and fell with a 
resounding crash. 

The fissure began to disappear amid the cloud 
of low-hung steam, and it was with difficulty 
we steered our course for it. A sudden outcry 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 315 

from the boat that strained ahead made us 
aware that we were forging with all the pow- 
ers of six stout oars straight at an opening 
that was yet a dozen feet above tide-level. It 
was only by the smartness of the boat’s crew, 
who doubled sharply in their tracks and 
snatched a rope flung to them from our stern, 
that we escaped inglorious shipwreck. They 
tugged lustily in the contrary direction and 
managed to stop the ship’s way. Then, hav- 
ing us more or less motionless, they rested on 
their oars, and we floated aimlessly, waiting 
further developments, for the fissure still wid- 
ened. 

We were silent, for the awe and anxiety of 
our position kept us tongue-tied, and every 
one was on deck. The sailors fidgeted up and 
down, now and again shifting perfunctorily 
some of the heaped confusion of the decks, but 
stopping every minute to gaze inquiringly at 
the peak, as roar after roar and shock after 
shock swept down from it. We were like male- 
factors awaiting execution, but hoping des- 
perately against hope for a reprieve. 

Then a thunderous boom, fifty times louder 
than any that had preceded it, broke from the 
bosom of the hill. The pinnacles swayed, tot- 
tered, and bowed earthward ; not one but was 
swept from its base. A red storm of lava 
surged boiling over the crater brim, swelled 
in a torrent down the channel through the 
heart of the glacier, and dashed in a cloud of 
steam into the far end of the lake. A vapor 


316 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


mist, impenetrable as a desert sandstorm, closed 
over the waters, but ere it fell we saw a huge 
threatening wave uprise and swing across at 
us in fury irresistible. Behind it was all the im- 
pact force of the fiery mass, but long ere it 
reached us the fog rolled down and shut us in 
in its warm gray veil. 

A rending crash broke from the cliff in front, 
and the cold, hungry ocean came clamoring 
through, beating upon the outcharging tide. 
For some furious seconds our ship plunged and 
reared among the fighting billows like a restive 
horse. Then from the boat came a cry as the 
pursuing wave reached her and flung boiling 
spray upon the men. Like a toy she was raised 
and flung toward us. The wall of water 
struck with a thud below our stern, and thrust 
us, bow forward, at the gap. Swifter than 
paddle or screw could have borne us we sped 
upon the crest, driving straight into the new 
reft opening. 

A gasp went up from every throat, and not 
one of us but breathed a prayer. Two sec- 
onds more and the dark walls were flashing 
by on each side. Then with a d3dng effort the 
great wave flung us far out into the ice-be- 
strewed main, diffusing itself up the long lanes 
of floating berg, roaring and clanging amid 
the splinters of the floe. 

Spinning on yet before that mighty impulse, 
lopsided, with ballast adrift, with fore-topmast 
gone and propeller-shaft broken, we fled forth 
from our prison, dragging the boat astern 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OP THE WALL 317 

with her bows out of the water, and from boat 
and ship ahke went up a mighty cheer of de- 
liverance as the great crags faded into the 
steam-cloud behind us. And so did we accom- 
plish our marvellous escape. 

As the great surge sank to ripples, we sprang 
to work, full of the energy of relief and grati- 
tude. Some set to right our littered decks, 
some descended into the hold to replace the 
shifted ballast, while Eccles, debarred from 
work by his broken collar-bone, stood over his 
subordinates and admonished them with many 
a good Glasgow expletive to seek drills to rivet 
a collar on the split propeller. Rafferty from 
between his oily compresses roared curses and 
commands at the deck-hands, and all, crew 
and passengers, were busy as best they knew 
how. And behind the deck-house my love and 
I found time to seal with a kiss the promise 
of new life that had had its birth under the 
very Shadow of Death. 

The red glow of the fire-pillar was beginning 
to pale into the tints of dawn before we had 
cleared our deck into any similitude of tidiness. 
All night long we toiled, relieving each other 
in crews of eight at the towing. For the heat 
ashore made the breeze beat landward with 
aggravating steadiness, and but for persistent 
effort we should have drifted back on to the 
sheer cliffs of the wall, and pounded our tim- 
bers into matchwood on its iron face. 

So wearily the oarsmen toiled and drew the 
unwilling ship by slow by-ways amid the herd- 


318 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


ing pack-ice. And down in the engine-room 
Eccles sat to swing his sound arm upon the 
gearing and spit imperious blasphemy at his 
underlings, who drilled and drilled again with 
stiffening fingers, while forward the carpenter 
wrestled with a spare spar to raise anew a 
topmast. Both on deck and below Rafferty’s 
nimble tongue reached and drove the lagging 
crew. 

Finally with morning came a fair breeze off 
the land, and getting sail upon the mizzen we 
lurched easily along, and the weary towers 
came aboard, full of thankfulness and drop- 
ping with sleep. Then leaving two volunteers 
to steer — Janson and Parsons to wit — we one 
and all sank down upon our berths and slept 
as only those sleep who have labored through 
four-and-twenty hours of surpassing terror and 
excitement. 

It was late in the afternoon ere I reached the 
deck again, washed, changed, and looking 
rather less like a sweep’s apprentice than I 
had done twelve hours before. Gwen was pac- 
ing to and fro forward, and delicious it was to 
watch her from the companion, and to note, 
with all the inward glow of love’s proprietor- 
ship, the golden curls flutter against her white 
forehead. 

She turned as I stepped out into the sunlight, 
and came and gave me good-morning with 
such happy shyness that I entirely lost my 
head in the exuberance of my feelings, and 
took thrice as much as I was offered. Which 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 319 

sweet felony I might have continued in spite 
of my lady love’s admonishings, but for the 
audible titterings of Gerry and Yi, who were 
conducting a similar function on the other 
side of the deck-house. 

It was not an altogether cordial interview I 
had with Lady Delahay, but on my part it was 
a very determined one. And she was in no 
condition to face me boldly. The stress of the 
last few days had worn her down, and she 
made but half-hearted defence of her devious 
dealings with me, and after my explanation 
that the dignity of the Heatherslies was not to 
be kept up on an Irish rent-roll alone, was 
almost kind. At any rate she saw that further 
opposition was useless, and wisely considering 
that it was well to agree with her son-in-law 
while she was in the way with him, gave a 
consent that was not entirely a grudging one. 
As yet the desperate proposals of Vi and Gerry 
remained untold, and her temper had not been 
strained beyond its furthest limits. So I re- 
treated with the honors of victory thick upon 
me, and in great peace my love and I went 
back to sit together behind the deck-house, and 
what we said to each other is no one’s concern 
but our own. 

For three days the flap of a two-knot breeze 
was upon our canvas, and we met occasional 
berg. But on the fourth morning we woke to 
an ice-free horizon, and to the hissing of steam 
in the boilers; this welcome sound being soon 
followed by the sight of a pale wake of screw- 


320 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 

churned foam. Neither Eccles, nor any man 
who called him master, had had four consecu- 
tive hours of sleep in the last eighty, but thanks 
to this and to his Scotch determination, we 
thenceforward swept our way regardless of re- 
sisting winds. Ten days of half-speed, lest we 
should strain our new-spliced shaft, brought us 
through constant sunshine to within sight of 
the Falklands. 

With the R. Y. S. pennant afloat, and black 
smoke curling from our funnel we breasted the 
billows into Port Lewis. As we drew near the 
land we were aware of a gallant ship standing 
out toward us; she too had fires new-stoked, 
and her cutwater spurned the foam. At her 
peak the white ensign floated, and we knew her 
for a man-of-war. Suddenly upon her decks 
commotion was visible, and the jangle of her 
engine-room bells came distinctly across the 
stillness. As she slowed, a stentorian hail came 
from a gesticulating figure on her bridge. 

“Racoon, ahoy ! Is it yourself then, or a new 
Plying Dutchman? In the name of heaven, 
m’ lord, how did you get away?” 

It was poor old Waller, and across the inter- 
vening sea-lane his face showed white as the 
lashed hammocks he stared across. His eyes 
were starting from his head. 

A cheer went up in answer from our assem- 
bled crew, and joyously I bade him come 
aboard to hear our news. In three minutes he 
was on our decks, exchanging heartiest of hand- 
shakings with us all as we pressed round him, 


A WONDROUS BREACHING OF THE WALL 321 

and pouring out question on question as he 
surveyed the ship again unbelievingly. I left 
him to the care of Gerry and Denvarre, while I 
attended to the blue uniformed naval captain 
who had accompanied him. This individual I 
could see was under the impression that Waller 
had grossly and impertinently deceived liim 
with a cock-and-bull story of our sad plight in 
the desolate regions of the South. 

I gave a hasty resume of our adventures, 
leaving detail till the evening, which we spent 
with the man-of-war’s men in much jolHfication. 
Waller had been fortunate enough to arrive two 
days before us, and to find H. M. S. Bluebell pay- 
ing her annual visit of inspection. Her gallant 
captain had promised to start directly Govern- 
ment stores were landed, and this promise we 
had found in the early stages of fulfilment. 

We pledged this good purpose in champagne, 
and gave him thanks worthy of the accom- 
plished deed. In the morning we coaled anew, 
and from the warship received help of engineers 
and artificers, who strengthened our patched 
propeller and battened down more firmly our 
ballast. 

In the evening we parted with much esteem 
and desire for future foregatherings — we to turn 
northward and home by the south seas, the 
Bluebell setting her course for Buenos Ayres. 

As the day died in the crimson of the sunset, 
my darling and I stood beside the tafirail and 
watched the ruby glories fade. We had just 
interviewed Lady Delahay on behalf of Vi and 
21 


322 BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL 


Gerry. With artful devices had I pictured the 
latter’s probable career in his profession with 
my influence at his back, and desperately had I 
exaggerated the possible worth of his share of 
the Mayan treasure. Denvarre, too, had mag- 
nanimously promised that the whole patronage 
of the family should be exerted to gain him 
attachesbips and like lucrative posts. The re- 
sult had been a tardy and unwilling, but offi- 
cial, benison of Gerry’s aspirations, and in the 
stern the young couple sat hand-in-hand with 
the more or less complacent assent of the 
lady’s mother. 

So in perfected content my love and I stood 
together in the bow, and saw the sun sink into 
the main and the stars rush out into soft 
splendors above us. A thousand miles behind 
us were the terrors of the land of fire — terrors 
forgiven, in that they had knit our lives and 
now loomed shadowy through a mist of happi- 
ness. Our prow was pointing to the islands of 
eternal summer; and in our hearts love’s end- 
less summer reigned. 


THE END 





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